Eye of the Storm
by Meeerf
Summary: Before Seiken Densetsu 3, there was Valda, Richard, Loki, the Dragon Emperor, and Angela's sordid beginnings. Valda x Richard. Prequel to "Dark and Light".
1. Princess of Reason

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Seiken Densetsu, Heroes of Mana, or the characters within. I am merely a recreational user.

**Good Morning! **This story is a prequel to my Seiken Densetsu 3 novelization, "Dark and Light". Here, the events of some years before SD3 are covered, involving the actions of Valda, Richard, and others, and how they led to SD3. This one is a bit shorter and less involved, and there is only one POV (Valda, obviously).

I add a lot of background to my stories. The background to this story is actually contained in the last chapter (the history book), so you may or may want to read that chapter first. No spoilers. Additional information on changes I made are in the introduction to "Dark and Light".

**NOT BASED ON HEROES OF MANA! **Which is the prequel released for Nintendo DS. Which I don't even HAVE. They CHEATED, the game is Warcraft-style, not an RPG. I do use some names from it, but generally I defer to names and plot from the SD3 ROM. Why? Because a group of fans took the time to translate the game for us, and Squaresoft still won't publish it in any version. Score: Neill Corlett -1, Square - 0. BOOOO!! Ahem.

--

**1. PRINCESS OF REASON**

Princess Valda stood before the Mana Stone of Ice uncertainly. Of all the things to do on her seventeenth birthday, this would not have been her first choice.

But the Goddess had made it that way, when her mother left for the Holyland seven years before, leaving Valda's father to assume the regency until this day. It was fortunate her mother had been married, unlike many Altenan queens; she had found among her consorts a man who she liked enough, and more importantly was intelligent enough, to marry after he had fathered the Crown Princess. Despite taking on the regency, Kayen was all too happy to hand the rule of Altena to her now. She suspected he would never have advanced from Sorcerer to Archmage had he really had a choice in the matter.

Valda was finally of age, but there was no way she could ascend the throne without at least the first Gift of Mana. As it was, this would only be her "primary" coronation. The final coronation could not occur until the second Gift was received, and that would be some time off for her, young as she was. The rest of the world, not mindful of the distinction, would call her "Queen" from now on, but most of Altena would refer to her as "Princess" for a while yet.

She looked at the small gathered party. Her father. Her advisors, her friends, a couple of her current consorts. None, fortunately, foolish enough to think they were candidates for marriage.

Uncertainty stopped her for a moment. Valda looked the part of the queen, clad in fine blue silk that molded itself to her body to complement the violet hair that fell starkly almost to her knees. She might have expected a small nod of encouragement from her father, but he would no longer tell her what to do, even in this. She was frightened, the more so after being told for so long how great her magical potential was. But Valda rarely allowed her emotions to cross her face, and her fear did not show to the waiting guests as she stepped up to the Stone.

--

The light swallowed her, blinding her completely, for what seemed to be forever. Valda knew her choice already, but surely there must be more to it than this?

When the darkness started to appear, it was almost a relief from the monotony of the light.

She watched the darkness twist between the light, the dark spots growing bigger and bigger, yet the light never diminished completely. Between the two, she felt Mana, the force keeping the two in balance, yet eternally opposite. Without Mana, there would be no distinction, no order, no life.

She could not see herself here, but she was not alone. Turning to her left - how did she turn, without a body? - there was Undine, the water elemental, the blue mermaid she had seen in her prayers and dreams. Never this close, but even here, the Elemental seemed no more substantial even if more present.

"Do you understand?" Undine asked Valda, the Elemental's voice trickling into her nonexistent ears like a peaceful babbling brook.

"Yes," the new Queen of Reason replied. "Dark and Light, both sacred, both necessary." She had thought the topic through herself, many times, but seeing it like this made it clear as still water.

"And you will need to understand that structure to advance your magic powers as a Sorceress. It was hard to show you the things you needed to know, the determined way you came here. You already knew exactly what you wanted. Most give even a split second to the other choice, but you never even considered it. Why?"

"There is no choice. It is too dangerous, for a Queen with no heir. Altena cannot risk losing me." Valda had reasoned it out, weeks ago, but the decision was not hard.

"You wear the title Queen of Reason well, Valda." And Undine was gone.

Valda was still glowing with pride when they set the crown on her head that evening. If the Elemental had faith in her, perhaps she was ready to be Queen after all.

--

The young Sorceress-Queen found responsibility calling her sooner than she knew, the next year, as the Beast Kingdom, its borders not yet completely established, attacked Forcena.

The situation was all very strange. The beastmen were forest-dwellers, why would they attack the grasslands country? And why would a new kingdom attack one as old and well-defended as Forcena? She would have expected them to head for Wendel, if anything. None of it made sense.

But nevertheless, a conflict like this was not something the powerful nation of Altena could ignore. And thus, Valda found herself landing with a contingent mage-soldiers in the hills of Forcena, some distance away so the secrets of their airship would not be revealed. Some things had to stay within Altenan borders.

She was surprised by the man who greeted her at the gates to Forcena.

She had only a bare minute to contemplate him as a regular man before the formal introductions were made. The leader smiled charmingly, obviously aware of the effect his blond good looks had, even had he not been a Prince. As tall as Valda was, he was several inches taller, and his finely shaped muscles matched features that could have been sculpted from marble. Richard of Forcena looked the part of both a Knight and a Prince.

His brown eyes sparkled with a flirtatiousness that was probably as natural as he breathed. Valda met his eyes, but allowed no expression to show; she did not flirt back, nor did she give him the keep-away signal. She merely ignored for the moment what his eyes suggested; she was a queen first, after all.

Patiently waiting for the proper forms to be observed - her long list of titles, and the equally long list that followed Richard's name - Valda was finally able to step forward, into the castle of Forcena.

"Welcome, Queen Valda," Richard greeted her warmly, genuinely, kissing her hand with a full-blown version of the knightly chivalry that Forcena was known for. Offering her his arm, he escorted her through the castle to a meeting room. Valda dismissed all but her highest officers, and Richard followed suit.

As soon as the door closed, though, Richard lost his aura of jovial hospitality, and became a serious ruler once again.

"I apologize for the King not attending in person, your Majesty," he said, addressing Valda but indicating the response for her companions as well. "My father is quite old and increasingly sick, but I assure you, I am quite qualified to take control of this situation, having trained as a Knight along with the other Forcenans, and being well educated in the arts of war."

Valda listened to him, sensing that underneath that brazen confidence was a thin vein of fear. She did not draw attention to it, with either words or demeanor; the most important thing was that he covered it well enough to present to both her troops and his own. It was her job to cover that fear as well. The fact that he knew what to hide and what to show spoke much for his cleverness. As she listened to his words, she thought to herself that he would take over his father's throne as a wise and skillful ruler.

Finally, the monarchs gave the order to dismiss, Richard using the formal words, Valda giving only the slightest nod. As her sorceresses and sorcerers got up to leave, she rose to approach the Prince of Forcena, her blue silk skirts brushing the table as she walked.

The Prince looked at her with restrained interest, his expression well covering the discomfort he had been holding in for the last hour. "Your Majesty," was all he said.

"Queen Valda, will be adequate, if we are to achieve alliance," the Sorceress replied. Despite the excursion into informality, Valda maintained a regal tone. She had an image, and the reputation of her country to uphold, and over the past year she had started to realize how much of herself by necessity remained hidden in that process.

"Queen Valda, then," he agreed, his eyes still questioning. "And you may call me Prince Richard."

She decided to skip to the point. "You left out a lot out to protect your troops."

"Whatever do you mean?" he asked, cautiously.

"You covered all the technicalities. The possibilities, the strategies, like the game that warfare can be likened to. But you skipped over the whys. Why the beastmen are here, what do they want."

"And there is something you are afraid of," she finished.

Richard looked down at her. Not in a degrading way; he was much taller, and Valda strained to meet his eyes. "They call you 'Queen of Reason', for a reason, apparently," he conceded. "But the questions you are asking should be addressed more privately. Perhaps later tonight?"

--

Valda reminded herself that she was here as a head of state, but somehow, not even the servants flocking around the table could make her feel like anything but an eighteen-year-old woman in the private chambers of the twenty-five-year-old Prince of Forcena.

Fortunately, despite the slightly suggestive setting, Richard maintained a dignified distance, as they discussed the matter at hand.

"The Beast Kingdom has been content to stay in the background for the last twenty years, as they formed their kingdom," Richard began. "But now they seem ever more power hungry, ever more eager to expand their territory."

"Perhaps not surprising, given the persecution they have suffered," Valda observed. Despite the humanitarian efforts of Wendel, most common people scorned the Beastmen, and they had been driven from nearly every town where they tried to coexist with humans.

"But they have always been tribal groups until now."

"History remembers when Navarre, Rolante, and even Forcena were once the same, when Pedan and the Ancient City of Light ruled this world."

"And of course, not Altena?" Richard put teasing into his tone. Of course, he was well educated; he would have known that Altena had grown out of Pedan, so many centuries ago.

"But what, then, turns Ferolia into a kingdom now?"

"The same thing as all the others. A leader. Gauser, his name is, though apparently he is only referred to as the Beast King, just as the kingdom is rarely called Ferolia. An intelligent, rational Beastman, who has been to Rolante and Wendel, as well as Forcena."

"You speak as if you know him," commented Valda.

"I do," Richard replied.

For the first time since entering Forcena, Valda allowed surprise to touch her face. She left the expression at that, and waited for Richard to resume.

"Gauser is perhaps fifteen, sixteen years older than I myself," Richard finally spoke. "It was probably twenty-four years ago that he gained acceptance to study in Forcena. I, of course, was only a baby, but my father told me how he absorbed the information of our libraries and scholars even as he scorned our fighting techniques, dismissing them as clumsy and slow. My father considered him to be something of a protégé, and Gauser continued to visit, the last time being when I was twelve."

"Shortly after that, Ferolia declared itself a kingdom, and now _they _attack _us_. It's the way of nations."

"An intelligent leader," Valda mused. Despite her education, she herself found it hard to dismiss the notion of beastmen as ignorant animals. "That changes many things."


	2. Battle with the Beasts

**2. BATTLE WITH THE BEASTS**

The Forcenan scouts had brought back reports of the Beastman presence at the foot of the mountains surrounding Forcena for weeks. Oddly, they seemed to have bypassed Maia and Byzel, much closer to the border; had they _flown _into Forcena? However they got there, so far, they had done a whole lot of nothing.

Which left Valda somewhat bored.

She had the company of Richard most days, but though he was the very soul of chivalry, his flirting was only mildly amusing. It was the sort of flirting she would expect from a man who had young and inexperienced women throwing themselves at him right and left. She suspected it was all too easy for him, and he seemed perplexed at her lack of gushing response.

Let him wonder, she thought to herself with amusement after yet another over-the-top compliment comparing her eyes to the stars. Altenan women knew the value of subtlety, the intricacies of the flirtation dance; and their men weren't bad at it either, knowing when to pursue, when to fall back. Straightforward was rarely a word that would be used to describe it.

Beyond that, however, Richard was an amiable man, intelligent and not half as arrogant as she had suspected. Not a lover, she thought, but perhaps he would make a great friend.

--

Valda was asleep in her room, a gentle breeze from the castle courtyard whispering through the windows, when the castle of Forcena exploded into activity.

She had been jolted awake by the yelling in the corridor, growing ever nearer before rushing past, and was already pulling on clothing hastily when the knock came at her door.

"Queen Valda? Your Majesty?" called one of her mage soldiers. "It's the Beastmen! They're finally here!"

Valda flung open her door, one shoe on and the other in her hand, to give the order to meet on the top of the town's wall, above the main gate. A minute later, she herself was fleeing out the door to join her gathered troops.

Emerging into the night on the parapets of the castle, she realized they had neglected one major detail. These were Beastmen, not regular humans. They would attack at night, when they could transform into werewolves, and would be stronger and that much harder to beat. Of course, preventing that was the reason she was here.

Valda herself, lacking all but the most basic military training, would only endanger herself in the midst of the battle. She could accomplish much more up at the top, where she could survey the full situation.

And what a situation it was. Packs of werewolves dove into formations of armored knights. Even at this distance, she could see Richard at the forefront of the battle, the royal crest on his armor catching the moonlight. Somehow, she was not surprised that he would be at the very front, with reckless disregard for his own person, heir or not. Perhaps that was the way of things in Forcena, or possibly that was just Richard. Her own soldiers would have dropped their jaws had she even suggested she follow his example.

Valda allowed her officers, Sorcerers and Sorceresses all, to command the other mages. She had come in person to Forcena to add her strength, greater than that of any other here.

Richard had asked her to distract, not to kill. The less casualties, the better, he said, and so she decided to start off with some of the less deadly spells. The Queen of Altena directed water energy towards the forefront of the beast troops, with the others behind her following with weaker versions of the same. Water and ice poured over the Beastman frontlines, and the growls she heard from below indicated they were not happy about it.

Being wet would not slow them down, but it surprised them just enough that she could see the Forcenan frontlines take advantage of the surprise. The Beastmen recovered quickly, and Valda prepared for another strike.

The lightning streaking across the battlefield was enough to scare the Beastmen into _thinking _they were being hit, but all she sent directly at them was powerful blasts of air, which nevertheless made them stumble. The Forcenans were taking injuries, and she began to feel the sparks of healing magic as the Knights turned to aide their fallen.

Again, and again, the mages poured their spells into the battlefield, employing primarily Wind and Water. Earthquakes sporadically rumbled across the field, and a couple of well-placed fireballs as well, just enough to singe and frighten without truly harming. Valda was finding it easier and easier to wrap the elements around each other, adding dashes even of Moon and Tree to create ever more elaborate spells. Only Dark truly eluded her; it was the only one she had achieved no progress with since she had raised to Sorceress. Something about the chaos of the element resisted her control.

A wild lightning streak hit the ground to explode into fireballs in all directions. None of her doing. "Watch it!" she yelled, without looking to see how had delivered the messy spell. "Don't mix them if you can't maintain the structure! What do you think you are, a Magus?"

"Sorry!" a voice came sheepishly behind her.

Valda ceased her barrage to look where it had hit. Several beastmen had been hit, and lay sprawled on the ground. "Burning Mana Tree!" she cursed, in a rare loss of composure, but as she watched, something terribly surprising happened. Other wolves, previously having held back, ran towards their fallen comrades; had she not been herself so powerful, she doubted she would have been able to feel the Mana and figure out what they were doing.

In any case, it was obvious to the Forcenans below as the fallen beastmen rose again, no sign of injury. Where, by Luna, had the beastmen learned healing magic?

Well, that changed things. Valda gave the order to step the attacks up in severity. If they could heal, they would have to injure enough to keep the beast-monks busy. Fireballs and stone missiles now rained down, but still, it seemed the Forcenans were losing their advantage.

Increasingly desperate, Valda cast powerful beams of holy light, her greatest strength; effective against monsters, but generally not against humans. She was not sure how it would work against beastmen.

Where the focused energy swept across the beastmen, most fell, but a few were left untouched. She could have sworn those were the same whole had healed the others earlier; they had a pale, silvery cast to their fur. Yet they had not had time to heal themselves.

Well. That answered one thing. It was the Gift of Mana, it had to be, and those immune were the Light representatives. When had they learned _how_?

Valda slumped slightly, grabbing the railing to steady herself. The sheer force of her last attempt had weakened her, and if _she _was tiring... She turned right and left to see the other Altenans leaning against the wall, propping themselves up, if they were still standing at all.

Just at that moment, a young page came panting up the stairs. "Your Majesty," he addressed her, going to one knee. "Prince Richard sends word that they are rapidly being defeated. He wishes you and your people to retreat to a safer part of the castle while the gates are barred."

"And Richard?" Valda demanded.

"He will remain in the field."

"Remain here," she ordered the Altenans, sweeping past the startled page with no further address. _Retreat, my goddess! _she thought angrily, but kept her composure despite cries of "Your Majesty, your Majesty!" from the young man behind her.

But she did not cross back across the town's walls, to the entrance that would have let her back into the castle. Instead, she headed down the ladder, into the gatehouse itself.

When she reached the bottom, she broke into a dead run, past the startled gate guards, to the narrow port that would only admit one person at a time inside. Or outside, which is where she was going.

Stepping outside was the first time she had questioned her decision. All around her were armored Forcenans locked in combat with beastmen, now forcing the defenders up against the castle wall. Even without armor, and with no weapons other than the metal claws only some wore, the ferocity of the beastmen was overwhelming the Forcenan fighters. What could she possibly do in this madhouse?

She answered her own question when one of the werewolves lunged for her, and without thinking, she cast the same holy light, the beam of the saints, against him, crumpling the foe but not killing. Ignoring the growls of "Witch!" she heard from the beastmen who had taken notice, she pushed further into the field.

Valda could not heal, but she could stop fights before the need arose. For every pair of beastman and human she saw locked in combat, she felled the attacker. There were too many, but she would do as much as she could.

At least until she found Richard.

The Prince jumped back as his opponent went down before him, than lifted his visor to look at her in surprise. "_Valda_!" he cried, for once forgetting to address her by title. "What in the Underworld are you doing out here?!"

"Rescuing you, apparently!" she called, over the clamor surrounding them. "You're going to be a king one day, show the sense of one so you survive to _be_ one!"

Who knows how long she might have been trying to reason with him in the center of a battlefield, if they had not heard the shout. "A white flag?!"

"_Beast King_!" growled one of the werewolves, and suddenly all stopped.

The King - Gauser, Valda remembered - appeared before them in human form. "Return!" he roared at his troops, who scurried to obey. It must have been less than a minute before all had run, leaving stunned Forcenans still holding their swords upraised.

"King Gauser," Richard acknowledged the new arrival cordially.

"Prince Richard," the King returned. "Do you fear to meet with me alone?"

Slightly reddening, Richard turned and gave the order for the troops to disperse. Maintaining a show of bravery, the soldiers nevertheless seemed grateful, some limping as they returned to the gates of the town, though not yet reentering in case this meeting turned sour.

Forcenan and Beastman remained facing each other, and Valda silently observed the leader of world's newest nation. Nothing would have initially marked him as anything other than human; he had a thick, muscular build, though of a height with Valda, and a dense beard, but neither were uncommon, especially in Forcena. It was his presence that struck her differently. She saw anger, bone-deep within him, but not the mad anger she had seen in the attacking beastmen, which smacked of pure hatred for the humans. This was a righteous anger, and it spoke of power. It was not surprising he had become a leader.

Gauser waited until the Forcenans had retreated equally far as his own people, before finally addressing Valda. "Your lady wife, I assume? She must be, to come so courageously into the battlefield."

"Hardly," Valda responded dryly. The Sorceress gave the bare nod required when addressing a peer. "I am Valda, Queen of Altena."

"Altena. I should have known, with the magic flying across the battlefield," mused Gauser. "Your presence honors me, Queen of Reason," he replied, bowing with eloquent form that showed his education. "It is as well that you both are here. I had hoped ultimately to contact all major rulers of this world with my request. I wish for all nations to leave the Beast Kingdom in isolation for twenty years, so that we may survive, grow, and prosper. We will not interfere with you, and you will not interfere with us."

Richard grew angry as Gauser went on. "All this to ask you to leave us alone? How can you ask that when you tried to take our kingdom? Lives could have been lost here, my people could have died, just so you could come out here and ask us to _leave you alone_?"

Gauser raised one finger at Richard's tirade. "Because now you have seen, and know that we could have taken Forcena today, despite the Altenan help. You will also know that we did not, nor did either side suffer casualties. Severe injuries, perhaps, but that is where healers come in. And considering the sorties Forcena has sent in to violate our borders and attack our people, perhaps you will be more inclined to respect the borders now that you have been on the receiving side."

_Was that true_? wondered Valda. She would wait to ask Richard in private, but his body language already told her it was. It wouldn't have changed her decision to be here today, but he really should have told her that he had violated Ferolia's borders first.

Borders. That made her think of something. "What about Wendel?" she asked. "They are your eastern border. You must guarantee their safety as well."

Gauser looked at her somewhat witheringly. "Beastmen do not profane the Goddess, my lady. We worship her as all other nations."

"Your request seems most fair, your Majesty," Richard interjected, now all Prince again. "I will have to confer with my father, of course, but we should be able to agree on a treaty quickly." Richard seemed relieved as Gauser declined the offer of hospitality in the castle, and he and Valda, alone, crossed the now-silent field towards the city gates.

--

The rest was just technicalities, as the three monarchs hashed out terms. Richard was grateful for Valda's input, and Valda was satisfied with the final document, covering all possibilities from tourism to children lost in the Moonlight Forest.

Valda lay back on a chair in her sitting room, an hour after applying her own signature to the new treaty. Richard was taking it to his father at that very moment, and that would conclude her business here.

She knew she would see Richard again, first as Prince and then as King. But she couldn't imagine their next encounters would be anything as adventurous as this one had been.


	3. Getting Acquainted

**3. GETTING ACQUAINTED**

It was a seasonably chilly summer day of Valda's twenty-first year, when the Prince of Forcena returned to her life.

Richard was the same as she remembered. The edge of arrogance and the knightly chivalry, to go with his good looks.

But the man with him was more mysterious, and she let her eyes drift over him as she was introduced to Loki, one of the Knights of Gold, the King's personal guard. Valda vaguely remembered seeing him at Forcena, three years before. She remembered he was a couple years older than the Prince; Richard was twenty-eight by now. Loki had the same knight's build, though Richard towered over him. His piercing blue eyes were brooding somehow, but she could not tell if they covered up shyness, sadness, anger, or all of the above. It seemed she was not the only one capable of being discreet with her emotions.

Introductions over, she voiced the question that had been on her mind since the messenger had first brought her news of the visitors. "I am surprised to see the heir of Forcena here, and without a retinue." Richard seemed a little old for this to be some mere boyish quest. "What brings you to Altena?"

The two men suddenly looked very uncomfortable. Loki looked away, and Richard cleared his throat. "Your Majesty, might we speak in private?" said the Prince.

"Of course." The servants were finishing setting out their refreshments, and Valda waved them out of the room. Still, the men were silent for a long moment while they waited for the sound of retreating footsteps to disappear. The mood was settling on Valda as well, and it was starting to make her feel nervous.

As the quiet became almost too much to handle, Loki spoke first. "We're searching for the Dragon Emperor."

Valda barely suppressed a gasp. The Dragon Emperor. A legendary figure who had withdrawn from the world long enough ago that most people thought he was just a myth; but royalty such as she and Richard were obliged to know the truth. It seemed every time a period of chaos began, his shadowy figure emerged to take advantage of it. Yet now she knew of no situation in the world that he might exploit.

But when she voiced her confusion, Richard spoke to answer her. "We have reason to believe that it is more than chaos created by humans, now."

For a brief moment, Loki gained a faraway look in his eyes. Slowly, a pinprick of light appeared to the left of his face. Valda thought at first she was imagining things, as she had not felt Mana in use, but still leaned forward in interest as the light increased in intensity, resolving into a small fluttering being.

She had only read of these, but there was no question that this was a fairy. For them to appear outside of the Holyland, was a serious matter indeed.

The tiny being had a sadness in her eyes that she would not have expected. She addressed Valda solemnly. "It's Mana itself. It's changing, it's fading. Can't you feel it, Sorceress?"

Valda noted the Fairy called her Sorceress rather than Queen. Royalty was a creation of humans, but the Gift of Mana was from the Goddess herself; from a fairy, it was surely the higher title. With reverence, she replied. "I am not old enough to know, but some of the older wizards have been saying that small parts feel different, somehow..."

"We are not sure if the Dragon Emperor is the cause, or merely looking to profit," Richard said. "But all we have been able to find out for sure is that he has left Dragon's Hole."

Not at his stronghold, then. Valda rested her chin on her hands thoughtfully. "Then if he is not gathering power there, he must have left to find something. The only thing worthwhile seeking outside of Dragon's Hole would be..."

"...the Elementals, and the Stones they guard," the Fairy finished for her. "I fear he may try to subvert their power into his. I am not sure how, but we must assume his nefarious powers at his disposal."

Valda nodded. It was simply impossible that he could have even existed for this long without some power derived from the Underworld.

"We were hoping, Queen Valda, that you might tell us where to find the Ice Elemental," Loki asked politely.

"It's in a cave, a few hours south of here," Valda told them. "But you'll freeze before you find the way yourselves. I will have to lead you there."

"We would be much obliged," Richard answered.

"Then perhaps rest here for a day or two, and conserve your strength before proceeding," Valda suggested. "One more thing. The Mana Stone is there. If you are going to pursue the Dragon Emperor, you will need all the strength you can get. Have you received the Gift of Mana yet?"

Richard looked perplexed. "Gift of Mana?"

"Class change, if you prefer," Valda replied, though the more common term always sounded so unrefined to her ears.

"Only the first, some years back," Loki answered.

"But the second... Loki, there's no time like the present." Richard positively grinned at the idea.

--

Valda was fraught with worry as they left the gates of Altena. Worry for what would happen within her kingdom, and what would happen without.

She had been up half the night, leaving top-secret instructions emblazoned with the Queen's seal, checking the spells that kept the castle warm. They were largely self-sufficient once cast, lasting quite a while, but after hearing about changes in Mana, she took extra caution.

With luck, no one had realized yet that she would not be back for a while. She had thought it through. Fluctuations in Mana and the return of the Dragon Emperor were both things that quite concerned the head of Altena, and she would not be able to learn more sitting around on her throne. Besides, she was easily the strongest sorceress in all of Altena. Second class change or no, these swordsmen were going to need a mage on their quest.

Altena needed her more here than it did at home right now.

--

Even walking, the Mana Stone of Ice was only a few hours outside the city limits.

Valda gazed on it in wonder. She hadn't been here in four years, and on that day she had plenty of reasons to be afraid of it. Now, it seemed oddly comforting, its pearlescent light shimmering peacefully.

Richard and Loki gazed at it with apprehension.

"Ladies first?" Richard inquired, with a slight wink.

"I can't do it yet," she replied. "I'm not old enough, but more importantly, I haven't reached the limits of my magic ability. It's very important that a sorceress develops her abilities to the fullest beforehand, otherwise the second change won't be as powerful as it could be."

"I'll go," Loki said, looking straight ahead. In the days before they left Altena, he had told her about the first change, and why he had selected Dark instead of Light, in order to better protect Richard. Perhaps not what he would have wished for, in a perfect world; but in a perfect world they would not be hunting the Dragon Emperor either.

He fingered the jade medallion he wore, similar to the silver one of Richard's. Valda had assumed it was part of the Forcenan uniform, but perhaps it meant something else altogether.

Loki stepped to touch the stone, and the light enveloped him.

Long moments passed.

Watching a class change from this vantage point was not so terribly interesting, Valda thought. Loki was still visible to them, but as if through a large amount of water. Nevertheless, she allowed herself to become entranced in the serenity of the stone. The minutes dragged on.

A sliver of motion off to her left caught her attention, but she did not turn her head. She had seen Richard's head swivel out of the corner of her eye. Though not looking to verify, she was fairly certain Richard was checking her out.

Her smile was all on the inside. The man was far too self-confident for his own good. Let him look.

It was just then that the light of the Mana Stone quivered, and Loki was returned to them. If she had thought he seemed to be hiding sadness before, there was no hiding on his face now.

"Well?" demanded Richard.

"Swordmaster," Loki replied. "What I had planned all the way from the first change. Though for a minute there, I wasn't sure..." He looked at Valda, and suddenly stopped whatever he was going to say.

"Well, let's see if I have what it takes to be a Paladin," Richard said, laughing, and Loki's mood broke long enough for the man to laugh right along with him. It seemed to be some sort of a private joke. Richard stepped up to the stone, and Valda was left standing alone in the cavern with Loki.

Valda took advantage of the time to steal a glance at Richard, however blurry, when she knew he could not see her. He was just as attractive as she had thought at first; she could certainly see herself touching those strong arms of his. But the arrogance... that was the big turnoff. She didn't really enjoy a man who assumed he could have her.

As they waited, Loki broke the silence. "I didn't expect it to be this small of a gathering. I wish Simone could have been here."

"Girlfriend?" Valda inquired politely.

"Fiancé ," replied Loki. Perhaps that accounted for some of his withdrawal and sadness, the Sorceress realized. Having a buddy with you was fine, but knowing who was waiting for you at home...

Richard shimmered back into their reality. He had spent a much shorter time away from them, but apparently it had been enough, as he returned to them smiling, and Loki shook his hand solemnly. "You may call me my Lord, Queen Valda."

"And you may call me Princess Valda. It's what it is in Altena, without the second change," Valda told him. She was soon to let them know how long they would have the pleasure of her company, and titles were going to quickly become onerous. "Or just Valda will suffice."

"In that case... pleased to meet you, just Valda," Richard replied.

Before Valda could frame a response, a figure appeared before them, glowing with a soft blue light. Valda had seen the figure before, but never in corporeal form. Undine, the Water Elemental, was no less divine for her presence in front of them.

The Fairy emerged to greet her, Goddess's servant to Goddess's servant. "Undine... you're safe."

"Yes... for the moment, all is well," Undine replied... There seemed to be hidden meanings behind the exchange, not meant for humans to know. Undine then turned her attention to Valda, who inclined her head respectfully. "Sorceress. It has been some time since I have seen you. If you are not here to class change, then what brings you here?"

"We are seeking the Dragon Emperor, who has left Dragon's Hole," Valda replied gracefully.

"The Dragon Emperor... is he touching this world once again?" the Elemental inquired worriedly. "He must be once again seeking our power, the Stones' power, perhaps that of the Goddess itself. I will protect this Stone as best I can, but the other Elementals may not yet be on their guard. You must warn them, and perhaps you will gain clues to where you can find the Dragon Emperor as well."

"Do you know where the rest are? Undine? Fairy? Anyone?" asked Richard.

Undine sighed. "The Elementals were created to be parts of a whole, but that whole was to be split, and we can no longer communicate directly, nor do we know each other's exact location. The Goddess let us go our own way; we can feel Her through the connection of Mana, but physical distance has no meaning to that connection. Even She cannot pinpoint the exact location of the Stones in this world."

"So we have to find them the old-fashioned way, by traveling and asking around," Richard grumbled.

"Well, I imagine the Dragon Emperor will have the same predicament," answered Valda.

The Fairy nodded, then with a swish of wings and a trail of light, returned to Loki, fading out of sight. The Swordmaster only looked forward with hesitation in his eyes.

--

Valda had not requested the carriage she usually used to travel to the sea port of Elrand, wanting to hide her departure. Had it not been late summer, there was no way they could have made it through the snowfields supplied as they were. There was just enough ground revealed under the melted snow to make camping easy; nevertheless, Valda found herself resorting to using fire and air spells often to keep off the cold.

Not for the first time, she cursed the landbound position of Magic City Altena. She knew it had been built against the mountains to provide a weather break, back before spells were used to warm Altenan territories hundreds of years ago, but the western edge of the country was sheer cliffs, utterly impossible to function as a seaport.

She let them believe that she was merely guiding them to Elrand, then sprung it on them as they arrived in the city. "I'm sure it will be easy to find a ship, since the Queen will be going with you."

Loki and Richard fell all over each other trying to claim that it was too dangerous for a lady, just like the Knights they were. She listened to their reasons, their protests, their worries, patiently and without arguing.

Valda waited for their arguments to die down. She saw it on their faces, they thought they had convinced her. Then she spoke as if nothing had happened. "Now, about our ship. Then we'll find an inn to rest before we leave tomorrow.

They had nothing to say. They had used it all up already. Valda simply calmly turned towards the dockside.

Arrangements were quickly made for the next morning, and they retired to the inn for the evening.

--

Nine days on a ship together certainly gave one time to get to know a couple of strangers. Well, one and one-half strangers. She had met Richard before, but she was beginning to realize she knew little about him.

Richard passed the time by flirting with her, and making outrageous comments on her beauty. He was doing it largely to pass the time; he wasn't exactly a ladies' man, Valda slowly realized. When she was tired or in a bad mood, or she really pushed him away, he let go without a fight. She didn't mind the flattery and did not want to begrudge him a little harmless fun, but she really wasn't interested.

She enjoyed talking to Loki, however. They did make an odd couple, Loki and Richard. Loki had one thing in common with her - he largely kept his feelings to himself; but as the days wore on and he became more comfortable with her, he began to tell her about the fiancé he had left behind, a girl he had loved since childhood; about why he had chosen dark instead of light; about devoting his life in service to Prince Richard and his father. Loki did not lack for bravery, even if he showed off less, and when she asked Richard, the Prince was happy to tell her glowing stories of his friend's victories.

All in all, the time to Palo, port of Rolante, passed comfortably.

--

"Well, it's official, I guess Valda is staying with us," Richard said, reclining on a couch in their suite at the Palo inn.

"We should probably give her some sort of weapon," Loki said.

"Maybe we should find her a sword," suggested Richard.

Valda did not typically carry around a staff, like many of the Altenan wizards. Even among those who did, it was largely just a help to concentration, not essential for their primary weapons, their spells.

Nevertheless, a big piece of wood might be comforting about now, although she tried to insist it would be otherwise. "I can take care of things myself, thank you."

"I'm sure you can," Loki reasoned with her, "but it can't hurt to have something to fall back on. It would make it easier on us, too, not having to keep one eye on you all the time."

He had a point.

"Well, you're the Swordmaster, show her what you know," Richard said.

Loki handed her his own weapon, which she grasped with trepidation. The only swords she had ever held before had been antiques in the Altenan vaults.

To her surprise, it felt light and comfortable in her hands. She gave it a few practice swishes in imitation of the men. It felt quite empowering to brandish a weapon like this.

Until she slashed downwards, and got it caught in the dangling bells of her sleeves.

Loki broke apart laughing.

Valda gave him a look, trying to salvage a little dignity while releasing the sword now caught in folds of fabric. She was about to just cut through the sleeve of her dress to get it out, when Richard gently reached over and wiggled the blade to free it, leaving her silks intact. Valda felt herself blushing.


	4. The Wind Queen and King

**4. THE WIND QUEEN AND KING**

The elf dagger Valda now carried at her waist did give her a sense of security. It was a much shorter sword than those of Loki and Richard, less than the length of her forearm, and much easier to use.

It came in handy climbing up the mountain path to Rolante. The needlebirds flapping around her were easily taken out of the air with some gem missiles, but once they hit the ground squawking, stabbing them was proving very gratifying.

She hadn't realized the creatures had been changing so much. Some of the sahagins and sea serpents had become more aggressive as they had traveled the Sub-Zero snowfield, but she had been ready to dismiss that as a fluke. Normal Mana fluctuations turned small pockets of creatures into monsters from time to time, and there was no choice but to destroy them after that. But this many, this far from home...

She had sort of hoped they could just slip in and slip out of Rolante without it having to turn into a state visit, but that was not the case. Hours of searching only turned up one cave blocked by some primitive statue. It appeared that they would have to pay a call on the castle after all.

Before they entered, though, they were stopped by a large group of Amazons milling around the gate. They appeared to be just relaxing, in no particular organization, but two had their spears to the trio within seconds.

"Who goes there?" demanded one.

Richard seemed nonplussed, even suddenly being surrounded by spear-carrying women. "I am Prince Richard, of Forcena. With me are Queen Valda of Altena, and my First Knight, Loki."

"Leave them alone, Jalani, I've seen the Prince before. That's him for sure." At the yell from the other Amazon, the two in front lowered their spears and saluted him respectfully.

"My apologies, Your Highness and Your Majesty. We will send for the King at once. What may we tell him brings you to our kingdom so unexpectedly?"

Valda stepped forward, as the highest ranking member of the group. "We might not need to bother King Joster, if you can help us, Amazon. We are searching for the Wind Spirit, Jinn."

"The Wind Spirit?" wondered the one.

"Well, that should be no problem at all," said the other. "In fact, we know just who can help you." Turning to the group, she hollered. "_RIESZZZ_!"

The Amazon who arrived at her call was of a height with Valda, and perhaps a year or three younger. She was quite pretty, large green eyes framed by long brown hair, and there was a softness about her that many of the others seemed to lack. Not weakness, certainly, but more of a gentleness. Around her neck she wore an unusual string of silvery beads, where none of the other Amazons seemed to wear any jewelry.

"Greetings, your Majesty," she said. "I am Riesz, Valkyrie leader of this group. I can lead you to the spot you are looking for."

"What a pretty necklace," Valda commented politely.

Riesz fingered it modestly, a small smile crossing her face. "It's a Morning Star chain. It's an engagement gift, actually."

"She's going to marry the King!" one of the Amazons beside her stated proudly. Nods and cheers from the others.

How interesting, Valda thought. She had not expected to encounter the future Queen of Rolante in her travels.

"Should you be risking yourself, my lady?" inquired Richard with lordly chivalry.

"Amazons aren't afraid to _risk_ themselves," one told the Prince, seemingly somewhat offended, though a gesture from Riesz settled her down.

"When you guys get to the Corridor of Wind, don't be afraid to let her go in front. She has to be ready to class change in a few months, so let her get beat up as much as possible." added another Amazon.

"Class change?" wondered Loki. "Aren't you a little young?"

"It has to be done before the wedding, and that's only four months away. But I did the first change just a short while ago, and I can take you straight to the Mana Stone."

--

The statues in the Corridor of Wind obligingly moved out of the way of Riesz's tinkering on the walls. Valda could not sense any magic in use; this was obviously pure mechanics, but she could not for the life of her figure out what the young Amazon was doing.

Not only did Riesz lead them quickly through the caves, but her spear was uniquely suited to catch the flying needlebirds and harpies in midair. Loki seemed to feel a bit upstaged as another bird corpse fell before them.

"It used to be easy to get through here, once you knew the secrets of the statues," Riesz explained. "Over the past few years, though, the monsters have started appearing."

"I think there is some fluctuation in the Mana causing them," Valda replied.

"That's part of what we think the Dragon Emperor might be doing," Richard told her. Over the course of their trip through the caves, they had given Riesz the background to their quest. If they were right, eventually it would concern Rolante, too.

Riesz nodded, thoughtfully. "I wonder if that is the whole story, though. It seems something more than the actions of one individual would be needed to account for such a global effect." The young queen-to-be of Rolante was a sharp woman, Valda perceived approvingly.

She stopped short though, at the chamber which contained the Mana Stone. "I want to wait to see the Stone until the second class change, otherwise I might be tempted," she explained. "I'll wait for you here to lead you out."

--

They stepped into the cave to see a familiar sight, the glow of a Mana Stone.

Valda stepped closer, entranced. She didn't think she would ever get tired of looking at one, the beauty, the peace. It was like she could see the Goddess inside.

Staring at it, she thought she was starting to _feel _the Goddess as well, until she noticed the figure floating into view from behind the Stone. This must be Jinn, the Wind Elemental.

After Undine's quiet dignity, Jinn seemed surprisingly cheerful, bouncing as if on a breeze himself.

"Why hello there," he greeted them. "Usually I just see Amazons here, but today I have a Lord, a Swordmaster, and a Sorceress. What brings you to the Wind Kingdom?"

The Fairy emerged, looking even more melancholy than usual today in comparison to the Elemental's demeanor. Valda wondered why the fairy always seemed so sad.

Briefly, she explained the situation. "The Dragon Emperor, huh? That troublemaker again?" Jinn wondered. "Well, he hasn't been through here, but I'll keep an extra close watch on the Mana Stone. Nobody's taking _me_ by surprise!"

That was when they heard a crash, and a shriek from outside.

"Riesz!" gasped Valda, but the men were already running, swords in hand.

When they exited the cave, they were not prepared for what they saw. Seeing a lone Amazon instead of a group of people, an absolute swarm of harpies and gremlins had descended on the hapless future queen. Somehow the monsters had knocked boulders down from up above, one of which pinned Riesz's leg, trapping her as she shielded her head protectively from a group of needlebirds diving in to peck at her.

Richard dove in, sword slicing through the swarm, his shield and armor keeping the flying mess away from his head and body. He cut through the needlebirds, who began to drop in bloody heaps.

Loki was an even better swordsman than Richard, Valda observed. Where Richard slashed once, Loki whirled his sword until it became a blur, knocking creatures out of the air on all sides. He did not use a shield; he claimed it only got in the way, and he sure didn't seem to need it.

Valda could no longer see the men, hidden by the creatures, but she felt the surge of earth magic. She saw the wind creatures tumble to the ground, now bearing scars that looked like grayish burns where the swords had apparently made contact.

Of course. She should have figured it out sooner. The Swordmaster had enchanted their weapons.

It gave her an idea. She would have to be careful, though, not to take out her friends with the spell she was preparing. "Richard, cover Riesz! Loki, stand back!" She saw motion, and one slash opened a path through the fluttering horde for Loki to join her.

She deliberately made the gem missiles smaller this time, but that meant they hit more targets. She heard squawks and squeals all around, and in between, soft clinks where she knew some of her projectiles had reached Richard's armor.

Again, and again she cast. Loki stepped forward to swat the last few harpies contemptuously.

The gremlins had turned to ash upon death but even so, piles of deceased monster bodies now covered the area near the entrance to the Mana Stone's chamber. Richard pulled his shield from where he had been holding it to protect himself and Riesz, and tossed away the dead vermin lying nearest him. Fortunately, Valda's razor-sharp projectiles had cut so cleanly that little blood was shed.

Loki kicked a couple of harpy corpses over the edge. Valda debated simply incinerating them on the spot, before making herself useful by blowing them over with some focused air blasts. Not wearing gauntlets, she certainly wasn't going to be touching those things, even if they were her handiwork.

They had more important things to worry about anyway. With a great heave, Richard's arms strained to push off the rock that had pinned the Valkyrie down. She winced slightly.

"Are you okay?" asked Richard, concerned.

"It just hurts a little," Riesz said, struggling to maintain an even expression. Her leg was contorted into a highly unnatural position, obviously broken, yet she did not let herself show the pain.

Valda knew Amazons were brave, some said even more so than the Knights of Forcena, but this bordered on absolute insanity. She knelt down to take Riesz's hand, and the hard squeeze she got back told the truth, as well as the rapid heartbeat she could feel.

"We'll have to get help," Loki said, his voice also concerned. "We can't get her out of the Corridor ourselves."

"It's alright, Loki, with the second class change... I think I can do it, even as bad as it is." Valda was confused. Do what? What was Richard talking about?

She got her answer shortly, as Richard, the Lord, gently touched Riesz's leg, a blue light slowly surrounding it, and a spell began to form. Valda cringed as he reached out to straighten it, but Riesz showed no pain, even loosening her grip on Valda's hand.

The blue light faded, and Riesz stretched her leg experimentally. "I can remember it being broken, but... except for that, I would have never known anything had happened."

Valda was amazed. She hadn't realized the Prince knew healing magic. Just when she thought she had him figured out...

As Riesz got to her feet, Richard leaned back against the wall. It was just then that Valda noticed he himself had numerous tiny cuts covering his legs from where his armor had not protected him from her diamond shards.

She was staring at his injuries, suddenly embarrassed, when she felt his eyes on her. She turned to look at him. "Sorry," she said sheepishly.

"It's alright," he said, his smile this time genuine, not flirtatious. "See? Good as new." A small application of the healing light, and the cuts closed themselves. He stood, then offered her a hand up from her healing position.

"Well, I think that must have cleared out every monster in the vicinity," said Riesz, laughing lightly. "And it's only mid-afternoon. We'll be back to the castle in time for dinner."

--

Valda watched Richard from afar, remaining by Loki's side as they walked some paces behind him. Riesz laughed easily with the Prince, he not flirting with her, merely being friendly. He was becoming more of an enigma to her.

"Why would he not have more admirers than he could handle?" she wondered, half aloud, and half to Loki. A royal, she knew, never lacked for companionship, if they wanted it.

"Well, Richard is a Crown Prince. He has all the bedwarmers he want, all he has to do is snap his fingers, and one will be provided for him."

"I see," Valda said, bemused.

Loki continued, though, his eyes meeting hers with a fiery seriousness. "But you know, Valda, those women are interchangeable, forgettable the next day. I've never seen him give anyone more than a glance, until now. I've never seen him look at anyone, the way he looks at you."

--

The king came himself to greet his fiancé, and her troops, at the gate of the castle. Despite the marriage apparently having been arranged by the general Amazon troops, the couple appeared quite fond of each other, as they greeted each other with a long kiss.

She had never met King Joster, and Valda was surprised. Riesz had referred to him as a young man, and he could still be accurately described as such, but he was still probably twice Riesz's age.

Joster seemed to lean in a little too close as he greeted her; she felt an uncomfortable twinge until she noticed he did the same to Richard and Loki. "It is a pleasure to meet you, your Majesty, your Highness, and honored Knight. Please, be welcome to Rolante."

"It's his eyes," Riesz whispered to Valda as they entered the castle. "His sight seems to be getting worse, and there is nothing our healers can do about it. Even they have limits."

They were entertained in a style befitting royalty. Richard apparently had been to Rolante before, and knew Prince, now King, Joster. While the two renewed their acquaintance, Riesz gaily entertained Valda and Loki. It would have been hard not to like the charming future Queen.

Valda found herself telling the story of the first encounter with Richard, in the battle against the Beastmen. Riesz pondered her story carefully.

"Did he ever reach here? Gauser told us he meant to contact the rulers of all nations."

"Yes, he did," Riesz replied. "He had traveled through here some years back, and last year, he was Joster's guest, remaining here for a month or so. We have no quarrel with them, Ferolia being far from us, so there was no reason for conflict. In fact, we acquired some generous trading privileges."

Much better than Forcena had achieved. "But there's more to your story," Valda insisted, sensing reluctance on the Amazon's part.

Riesz sighed. "I suppose I must be honest with you, Queen of Reason," she replied. "One of our own left with him.

"Layla was a Dragon Master, a status unusual in our kingdom. She grew rather close to him during their time here, and as he prepared to leave, she indicated her desire to go with the Beast King. Joster released her from her vows, but I think she would have gone anyway. I heard she had intentions to wed him."

Valda started slightly. Was it the thought the Beast King marrying, or merely surprise at the idea of his taking a human wife? Would she be welcomed? It was one of those things that, though not forbidden, was rarely considered.

The Goddess loves all her children, she forced herself to remember.

Before Riesz could note her silence, Joster arrived to greet the pair.

"I must thank you, Queen of Reason," the Rolantic king greeted her. "Richard has been telling me the story of your excursion in the Corridor of Wind. He was rather modest about himself, but it seems my bride might have perished without you."

"My thanks, sire," Valda replied, "but it was Richard who did far more than I could."

"I think we should find them some sort of reward, Joster," Riesz teased as the guests started to dissipate.

"For saving my wife-to-be? Certainly," the king answered. "I know just the thing."

The couple led their guests to what appeared to be a treasure room, several stories up. Jewels, armor, and weapons covered the walls, and every available table.

Joster walked to a wall against which were mounted a row of swords. "Let's see... one light, one dark. These, I think," he said, selecting two.

The one had a shining silver blade, with pearls inlaid into the handle. The second was volcanic obsidian, tempered to battle-worthy hardness; red swirled through the metal, and the hilt was of precious Rolantic silver.

"The Excalibur, and the Ragnarok," Joster announced proudly.

Richard caressed the blade of his Excalibur almost lovingly. "These are incredible gifts, Joster, we could not possibly accept them."

"Nonsense. This is Rolante, we all use spears and maybe a bow. The swords were just decorating the wall until now. Consider it a token of peace from monarch to future monarch."

Loki, meanwhile, was giving his present a few test swings. "I'm keeping mine," he declared in a satisfied manner.

Riesz, meanwhile, had knelt on the floor to rummage through a treasure chest, mindless of her silk gown gathering dust. "For you, Valda, it's perfect."

The wand she produced thin and short, barely longer than Valda's open palm. Valda accepted the present reverently. Even touching it, it was the same feeling as when she gazed upon the Mana Stones. The color was even similar.

"The Eternal Rod." Riesz announced, a pleased smile on her face.

Valda tested a small stream of Mana, and it positively sang within the rod. The melody felt sweet enough to sting her. "It feels almost like too much," Valda confessed.

"It's meant for someone who has received the final Gift of Mana," Riesz told her. "I have a feeling you're going to grow into it."

--

On the ship, Valda gazed back in the direction of the Rolante mountains. Two days out of Palo, they were no longer visible as the Navarre plateaus loomed ahead.

It would have been tempting to stay in Rolante for a few days more, but the king and queen-to-be had understood, and wished them a warm goodbye. They had things to do that they could not postpone.

By the time they reached Navarre, she would have been gone from home for weeks already, and it was making her a little anxious. Not that her father couldn't run the country in her absence - he had been doing it for years, after her mother died. But she was feeling homesick, and maybe a little lonely.

She sensed someone coming up behind her, but did not turn. A moment later, Richard joined her at the rail.

He did not speak at first, trying not to interrupt her train of thought. Finally, apparently, he could not take it anymore.

"The Sand Palace is on the opposite side of those plateaus," he told her. "Built right into the rock itself, making it virtually impossible to attack."

"Necessary for a country with no true military strength," Valda replied.

"Yet still one of the major economies of the world," Richard countered.

"A very unique people, I would think, to exist that way for so long."

"I've hear Navarre is full of blue-haired vixens," Richard teased.

"I've heard Navarre is full of sexy long-haired thieves," Valda retorted. It was so refreshing when Richard did not know what to make of her expression.

But the confusion broke, and he laughed. "Valda... you're such a mystery. I never know how you're going to react next."

"Whatever do you mean?" she asked him.

"You are sometimes warm, sometimes cold, and you never give a hint of what you are going to do until the last moment," he said, leaning closer over her. "I don't know how you would react if I did something like... oh, this," he said, leaning in to give her a gentle kiss.

Valda's only reaction was to widen her eyes slightly.

"Or this," he said, kissing her a little more deeply.

Valda kept her face clear, but she was still standing there, and that was really answer enough. She waited for him to put his arms around her before she wrapped her arms around his neck to kiss him back.


	5. Raiders of the Desert

**5. RAIDERS OF THE DESERT**

The city of Sultan was as burning hot as Valda was afraid it would be, and Richard and Loki were not handling it much better. It was a fairly easy joint decision to sleep during the day and travel at night.

They grabbed a room at the inn for a sleepy siesta, which fortunately contained three beds. Valda was not sure if Richard might not press his advantage in a smaller space. She had surprised both him and herself the way she had kissed him back on the ship, and much of the rest of the voyage had found them wrapped in each other's arms, wanting to repeat the experience over and over. She hoped fervently that he would not assume a deeper meaning to their kisses before she could decide for herself.

Somewhere in tossing around her mixed feelings for Richard in her head, she had descended into sleep, and the next thing she knew, Loki stood above her, gently shaking her awake.

Her eyes opened reluctantly, to see the Swordmaster gazing back, the Fairy floating behind him, that sad expression still on her face as always.

"Richard?" she asked, then mentally slapped herself for letting her first thought be of him. Loki's expression became questioning. "He stepped outside for a few minutes. Said you might feel more comfortable if I woke you up, so you wouldn't feel put on the spot." His eyebrows rose, begging explanation.

It would have been quite startling to be woken by the man she had fallen asleep thinking of. Nevertheless, she chose to leave unanswered Loki's unspoken question, remaining silent as he helped her to gather their things. Frivolous small talk was all that broke the silence.

Valda couldn't help but wonder once again about the man who rounded out their trio. He had a gentle kindness that contrasted with Richard's brazen confidence, but Loki seemed content to remain quietly in the background behind his royal friend. Like she herself, he only allowed flickers of emotion to show behind his calm facade.

--

It was a couple hours out of the desert city when the sun set, casting brilliant orange rays over the desert, taking the heat of the day away along with the light. The path they followed was somewhat decaying and poorly maintained, but was still marked well and led them to the Valley of Flames before midnight, in Valda's estimation.

A chill had started in the night air, but Valda would have gladly taken that in place of the searing heat that greeted them.

She had been sure that "Valley of Flames" was just a metaphor, but no, here, all around her fires burned, feeding on what, she could not comprehend. Perhaps the incredible Mana energy of the area. At least, she knew they were in the right place.

Loki knelt on one knee to read a sign. "At least where we're going isn't far."

"That's good news," Richard answered. He had spoken too soon, as a gaggle of large orange lizards leapt into their path.

One opened its mouth, and out spewed a volley of flame.

Valda reacted without thinking this time. Ice met fire, to sizzle away to steam inches before Richard experienced severe burns. Just because he could heal, did not mean they wanted to test his ability unnecessarily.

Loki dispatched the remainder of the fire-breathing reptiles with his peculiar, effective whirling sword techniques. Richard merely shook his head.

Valda kept the ice magic ready as they made their way towards the Mana Stone, but there were no further incidents, except for the insufferable, blazing heat all around them.

Which she suddenly forget spying the third Mana Stone of their journey.

She felt that familiar peaceful sensation, and she let herself drift slowly towards it, letting the feeling envelope her. Richard and Loki flanked her, seeming to feel it too...

Until the fireballs started raining down all around them.

They weren't very _big_ fireballs, more of a scare tactic, but Valda's ice spell was poised for release, and she instinctively threw her magic towards the estimated source.

"_Hey_! Who's there?!" called Richard.

The fireballs stopped as suddenly as they had began. "Oh, sorry!" a voice called back. As the last burning embers began to die, the Fire Spirit, Salamando, floated across a lake of molten lava to greet them.

"I realized my mistake as soon as I sensed the Sorceress! You can't be too careful, with strangers coming down to poke at my Mana Stone!"

Richard froze. "Strangers? What kind of strangers?"

"Did they get to the Mana Stone?" worried the Fairy.

Salamando looked at the group questioningly. "Well, humans, it seems you have a fairy with you, so you must be trustworthy, otherwise I wouldn't tell you this. It's the Dragon Emperor. He's been down here recently, trying to break the seal on the Stone."

"He didn't manage?!" asked Loki, angrily. Valda only gasped.

The Fire Spirit burned more angrily, it seemed, for a moment. "No, I had a bad feeling about things recently, so I strengthened the seal on it. It will take a lot more power than he has right now to unseal this baby, but I don't know how well the other Stones are protected."

"Forcena," Loki spoke up grimly.

"Then that will be our next stop," declared Richard.

"Burn 'em up for me, Lord, Swordmaster!" Salamando said, and disappeared.

--

They stepped out of the Valley of Flames into a refreshingly cool night. It seemed to be only a couple hours until sunrise, judging by the color of the sky.

Unfortunately, the darkness meant they didn't see the ninja until they were already upon them.

The way they moved, there seemed to be a hundred of them (though in actuality, Valda noted dimly, only twelve or so). Richard and Loki barely had time to get their swords out before the stealthy fighters had overwhelmed them. Navarrese were not known for strength, but their speed lived up to the rumors.

"This must be the Prince of Forcena," one observed. "Our spies had told us you had been seen in the area, your Highness. I'm sure your father will pay a good ransom to have you back. We could use another million or so Luc in our coffers."

"Is this how Navarre makes its money?" Richard replied angrily, suffering the impunity of having his armor removed by two others.

"Whatever it takes." The ninja shrugged.

Two ninja had grabbed Valda, and one shorter one, a woman apparently, had rapidly got to work disarming her as was being done with the men. Not that it was taking as long.

The woman quickly relieved her of her dagger. "Our type of weapon," she commented to her companions, "but she's carrying it at her waist, instead of keeping it hidden. Think she knows how to use it?" Her tone said, obviously not.

"Treat a lady with respect!" Richard cried, struggling ineffectually against his captors. Valda shook her head slightly to tell him to be still. She met his eyes, which were pained with his inability to aide her, and slightly apologetic.

"Maybe she's a maidservant," said one of the men holding Valda.

"Or a bedwarmer for the other two," replied the other.

Despite the insult, Valda forced herself to remain emotionless, so as not to disrupt the spell she was forming. A few fireballs would make the group disperse quick enough. She let it build slowly, and started to focus where she wanted to hit.

"Stop your spell right there," the voice came, just to her right. At a gesture from the man who stepped into view, one of the ninja raised his dagger to Loki's neck.

Of course. Loki, not being the Prince of Forcena, was expendable. And she had to assume they could tell somehow when she was using magic.

Valda let the spell dissipate, and the dagger was removed from Loki's throat.

The new man, seeming to be the leader, wore more typical desert beiges and tans that the black and grays the ninja seemed to prefer. He seemed to be the one in charge, however.

"You should have known better," he scolded the rest. "An Altenan, this far from home and dressed like that. She can only be a mage." At least he had not figured out _which _mage, or there might have been a second request for a healthy ransom being sent to Altena as well.

He turned to Valda. "Apologies, my lady, but it appears we will have to bind you as well." Valda nodded reluctantly, and did not object as the rope went around her wrists behind her, not cruelly, just as a job being done. It appeared that they would be treated well enough as could be expected, provided they did not resist.

For the last, a thick swath of silk was placed to cover her eyes, and much of her face as well. She could not see even a crack of light through it. Suddenly blinded, she wondered what would happen next.

"What's that for?" wondered a voice.

"She can't cast at a target if she can't see," the leader replied. "And one more thing, to be sure." 

_Sleep flower_, Valda realized as she crumpled. _Dryad's magic_. The magic of the Navarre rangers. She hadn't known it was still in use, but consciousness disappeared before she could think about it further.

--

When she awoke, she had been retied lying down, her hands above her. Oddly, a pillow seemed to have been placed underneath her head.

She was still blindfolded, though, and the cell seemed eerily quiet.

"Richard?" she called. "Loki?"

Silence. She could not even hear a guard.

Well, if she had no guard, either, maybe she had a chance. She wriggled her wrist gently in the bond, and felt scratchy fibers instead of cold metal. Rope, then.

It wasn't strictly accurate that a wizard had to see her target, but it was very difficult to do without. Still, if anyone could do it, the Princess of Reason could. Left hand, she decided arbitrarily. The tendril of fire she formed was the smallest she could form, and as she felt the heat by her left wrist, she knew she had found her mark.

As the rope burned through, she gritted her teeth as the flames flickered against her skin. She reminded herself that the important thing was to escape, and Richard could heal the burns later. She began to wiggle her wrist inside the bond.

Her hand finally broke through the last fibers, and she followed with an ice spell she had been holding to soothe the pain of her reddened skin. Sitting bolt upright, she flung off the silk covering her eyes.

The first surprise was the room she was in.

Not a jail cell at all. A small bedroom, servants' quarters it seemed. Still, a great deal better than where she had expected to find herself.

She turned to look behind herself to see her remaining hand still tied to the metal bedpost.

As she worked the second rope off, with her left hand rather than fire this time, she smiled slightly to herself at the compromising position she had been in. Oddly, she didn't think anything but comfort has been intended. Except for the thieving thing, Navarre had some of the strictest ethics of all the cities, in spite of, or perhaps because of, their lack of formal government. Observance of their culture's norms was one of the things that had allowed them to survive, and prosper; Navarre's people would punish and shun each other to keep the peace. They might take her purse, but they would not molest her person.

Standing up, she tried the doorknob to the room. It was open. Well, that was one step easier for her. Evidently they had not expected her to wake up, or to burn through the ropes. She stepped into a small common area with a few doors leading off it; it appeared she was in some sort of servant's quarters, deep within the castle, judging by the lack of outside light.

So far, so good, but the next step was not going to be so easy. A quick peek outside the door to the common area showed that it led right into the main hall of the castle. She watched small groups of women crossing to the outside area.

Closing the door, she rustled through the room, looking for ideas. She was able to find a lightweight beige cloak. It would cover most of her dress, but she would have to be careful to keep her head down; purple hair and blue eyes were not to be found in Navarre. Hopefully the fortress interior was dark enough to hide the pallor of her skin.

Cracking the door again, she surveyed the room. There appeared to be another door on the opposite side of the grand staircase; she watched two men come out of there.

It was as good a place as any to start searching. She waited for a break in the people walking through, then, with a deep breath, attempted to stroll nonchalantly across the great hall, as if she had every reason in the world to be there.

She only exhaled when she entered the other door, and found nothing but a small staircase leading downward.

As she climbed down, she heard a familiar voice. Loki. She must've had a thief's own luck to find them on her first try.

She was poised on the brink of casting magic, just in case, but there was no need. Richard and Loki were as unguarded as she was, though they, at least, had been locked in a real cell.

"Valda!" Richard cried, relieved.

"We didn't know where they had taken you," Loki added. "Even the fairy didn't know."

"Not very far, as it turned out. Where's the guards?"

"They left. Apparently all Navarre does is party every night, and that's where they went," Loki replied. "They couldn't stop talking about it. They were rather scornful of the idea that the two of us could do anything more than swing a sword, so they didn't seem to be too worried about us escaping."

"And they would have been right, until now," Richard added.

"Well, there is one small problem. No guard means no keys."

"Don't you have some spell up your sleeve?" Richard asked.

"Let me see what I can do." Putting her eyes up to the lock, Valda cast a miniscule amount of light magic, just enough to see the barrel inside. She had never tried anything like this, but...

A tiny amount of air and earth, and the barrel began to turn. Even with her talents, she would have never been able to do this from the inside, without seeing her work. Perhaps the Goddess was smiling on her that she had been kept separately.

A click, and the lock fell open. Richard embraced Valda warmly as he stepped out. She gave herself a second to feel him close to her.

"Well, we'd better find a way out of here," Valda said, breaking the moment.

"Except we need to get our weapons and armor first, all the things they removed from us," Loki replied. Valda suddenly remembered the Eternal Rod she had gotten from the young Amazon queen-to-be.

"Where might those be?"

"They have a treasure room. Richard and I saw them heading towards it as they brought us all in."

Loki led the way, which unfortunately was directly through the main hall heading out towards the front of the fortress. Still, the place seemed largely empty. Apparently the inhabitants, those who were still awake, had busied themselves with whatever happened at this time of night.

The treasure room door was carefully concealed, but the men, not having been put to sleep as she had been, had seen the secret to getting in. In a minute they were searching through the riches of the Navarre Thieves' Guild. There was absolutely no organization to it whatsoever, but their things had all been tossed into an unceremonious heap close to the door. Valda breathed a sigh of relief when she found her satchel containing the Eternal Rod.

There was no way they could find their way through the convoluted corridors of the Sand Fortress; they would be lost and recaptured long before they found their way out. There was really no choice but to exit through the main door, conveniently located to their left as they exited the treasure room.

Valda flinched nervously, and Richard gripped his sword tightly, as they opened the door to crowds of people. Like they could cut their way through this crowd anyway. But no one seemed to give them a second glance, though Valda continued to hold her cloak over her head to be on the safe side.

Rumors of Navarre's debauchery were certainly proving themselves true here. Music filled the courtyard, even this late at night, and everywhere Valda looked, she saw people dancing, shouting, sharing goblets, couples kissing in corners. It appeared everyone was substantially intoxicated at this point in time, allowing them to meander safely through the courtyard without anyone giving them a second glance.

They had almost made it to the far end of the courtyard when a shout broke out. "It's an escape! The prisoners have escaped!" Out of the shadows, ninja came running towards them, short swords at the ready.

The men were ready to fight, but Valda knew it would be useless. "Put those swords down, they didn't do us any good last time! I have an idea! When I tell you, shut your eyes!"

Valda let the spell concentrate as the ninjas grew closer, then yelled "_Now_!" closing her own eyes just at the last second before the brilliant light filled the courtyard.

Even with her eyes closed, Valda was nearly blinded through her eyelids. For the ninjas, it would have been like looking into the sun. As she and the men opened their eyes, they were greeted with the vision of ninjas stumbling and looking around blankly. They would be blinded for several minutes, and their night vision gone for probably a few hours, giving them a head start and enough time to make it to Sultan.

--

Arriving in the early morning, the party collapsed, exhausted by their flight, into their rooms at the inn. Valda had her own private room this time, for which she was grateful.

Despite her exhaustion, she tossed and turned on the comfortable bed. She woke up to the moon's rays streaming through the window, feeling only barely refreshed and no less confused. She rose, not without reluctance, and went off to find a certain someone.

Valda stepped out into the heat of the desert in the gardens outside the Sultan inn. Richard meandered through the heat-withered gardens, seemingly without purpose.

He did not sense her presence. She looked at him from afar in the silence of the early evening, his tall muscular body standing rigidly as his finely chiseled face gazed toward the arid desert hills beyond. Valda herself stood motionless for a moment. What was she doing here? It was unlike her to go so far for a pretty face.

Nevertheless, she quietly pursued him, her sky-blue gown twirling behind her as she stepped around the brightly colored Navarre flowers.

She had hoped for the element of surprise, but just as she arrived behind him, he started and turned to face her. Taken aback, she nevertheless managed to remain calm as he regarded her questioningly.

With a deep breath, Valda moved closer. "It seems warm tonight." An obvious comment in the desert, but the hand she laid on his arm suggested she meant something else altogether.

"Yes, it does," Richard replied, seemingly confused by the tone of the conversation as much as her reason for being there.

It surprised her to see him flustered. He was several years older than her, and she had to look up to face him, but something about his behavior near her made her feel as if she were the one in charge.

What could she say to him? Nothing. She took a step nearer to him, and tentatively placed one hand on his shoulder. He did not flinch back. Good. She inched ever so closer, enough for him to feel the warmth of her body without touching.

She looked firmly into his eyes. He seemed uncomfortable, but did not squirm away.

That is, until she leaned up to kiss him, quite seriously. She wanted to be sure he knew she wasn't playing around this time.

He succumbed to her momentarily, returning her deep kiss with feeling. Valda let herself sink into his arms. Despite herself, she knew her affection for him was growing.

It was a long moment of pleasure before he pulled away, not ungently.

"Princess Valda," he said, suddenly formal, "I cannot spoil you this way." 

Valda was confused. "Whatever do you mean?"

Richard looked at her with a sigh. "It's no use. I want you too much, and I can't take what you are asking me to."

"But it was I who came here to see you, and don't tell me you didn't want me to," protested Valda. "What do you think you would be taking from me?"

Richard looked perplexed. "Why, your virginity, of course," he responded. "I cannot ruin you that way."

Was that _really_ what he thought? "Virginity?" Valda scoffed. "Is that the way it works in Forcena? Really, I think you have a lot to learn about Altenan women. Let me show you what you don't know."

She didn't waste any more time. She wrapped her arms around him, and pulled him as close as she could.


	6. The Prince's Return

**6. THE PRINCE RETURNS**

Richard _was _learning a lot about Altenan women, Valda thought, as they stepped off the boat into Byzel five days later.

Most notably, that they were done with you when they said they were done. Valda smirked to herself as she looked at Richard yawning. He hadn't been getting much sleep the last few days.

Loki looked at Richard curiously as well, then met her eyes. He must have figured it out, but his expression was unreadable for the moment. Nevertheless, the Swordmaster maintained composure as he led them over the bridge, and into the grassy plains of his kingdom.

"Where to now?" Valda wondered.

"Well," Loki explained, "we've got kind of a trip ahead of us. The Stone itself is easy enough to reach, it's not too deep in the Gemstone Valley, but we'll have to travel nearly to Forcena and then through the highlands from there to reach the valley."

"And if we're looking to find Gnome, the spirit of Earth, we may need to descend further down to the caves off the valley. Dwarves are rumored to live deep in the mountains, and Gnome is considered to be their personal guardian."

"And I suppose there will be time to stop at the castle for some decent refreshment?" Valda asked.

"Well... I think once I stop there, it will be hard to get away again... Perhaps we should finish our task first..." Richard was obviously trying not to tell his new love interest "no" outright, but Valda took the hint, acquiescing reluctantly with a sigh and a nod. She could adapt, when necessary, but camping was really not her preference.

"Still... there's some people I would like to see in Forcena," Loki countered. Sadness flickered in his eyes, so briefly Valda barely caught it.

Yet Richard had noticed as well. "I know it must be hard, Loki, being away from Simone... I think perhaps on the return trip, a stop would not be out of the question." Loki nodded in thanks to his liege lord, and his ordinary neutral expression recrossed his face.

--

A short trip along the Golden Road out of Byzel led to an opening into the cave known as the Cleft of the Earth. Loki led the way across the bridge to Forcena, criss-crossing a great chasm.

Valda peered over the edge and shuddered. She was not fond of heights, to say the least.

She wasn't terribly fond of caves either, come to think of it. But it was only early evening as they emerged out into the grasslands. Richard was the first to breathe heavily of the air of his kingdom.

The Prince of Forcena seemed quite awkward when Valda curled up next to him for the night, just past the cave opening. But she did not think it was too presumptuous at this point to stay close to him, and by the third night he lost his self-consciousness at having his best friend see him with Valda quite comfortably wrapped in his arms.

He was snoring contentedly when a rustle woke Valda. Looking up, she saw Loki, standing next to his blankets, looking at her from a few feet away. Suddenly taken aback at her wakefulness, he turned and strode into the trees.

Valda silently slid out of Richard's embrace to follow him, catching up at the shore of the lake.

She lowered herself down to sit next to him on the bank, at first saying nothing so as not to break the feeling of solitude. Together, they gazed outward, watching the moonlight dappling across the ripples of the lake's surface.

He spoke first. "I knew this would happen between the two of you."

"How very sure of yourself, since I certainly didn't," Valda replied.

Loki chuckled. "It's not that. It's not hard to believe that when you put two unattached people together, in an intense situation... well... it magnifies what is already there... especially when someone has your spirit, Valda..."

Valda saw where this was going. "What is she like? Simone?"

Loki sighed. "Just as beautiful as you, and willful. A temper to match. It's a challenge every day with her, and I love her for it. She always does the right thing, she has the honor of any knight in the kingdom, putting it ahead of herself."

"Are you jealous?" Valda asked, pointedly.

"Perhaps a bit," Loki replied. "It reminds me every day that you have each other here, and I am alone."

"You must miss her terribly," Valda spoke, softly.

"I do. I imagine that one of these days I'll be able to stay in Forcena, and stay with her, with my family, the children we'll have. But I made my choice about who I was a long time ago, and I have Richard to serve now. Fate sometimes chooses to take us away."

There it was, the darkness that sometimes crossed Loki's face. Valda flinched back involuntarily.

He saw her motion, and reached out for her arm to calm her. "The thing is, Valda, that when you love someone, you will always know you have had that love, for the time you had it. It doesn't matter how far or for how long you are separated - even forever."

--

The day after found them descending down from the grassy hills. Loki announced they would be entering the valley itself the day after.

"The Gemstone Valley is beautiful, Valda," Richard told her. "A million gems sparkling like rainbows."

For once, Richard's flowery expressions were accurate, Valda thought as she caught her first glimpses. These might be gemstones, but it was easy to forget when there was so many of them. It was more like a field of flowers. She was grateful that Gnome did not allow more than a few to be mined, or this sight would have long since been gone. Every time she saw a pile of rocks, she remembered the stories about how smugglers suddenly found themselves buried by mysterious earthquakes.

"Watch out!" she heard the shout, and she quickly struck lightning at the hedgehog-like creature lunging for her, obliterating it a split second before Richard's sword slashed through now-empty air.

That was the second line of defense, she realized. The path downward was increasingly infested with these creatures. Slimy blobs as well slithered around her feet, hurling their gooey mucus projectiles at an increasingly disgusted Sorceress.

As Richard blocked one such mucus shot with his shield, a small, carefully focused zap of lightning splattered the thing into a hundred droplets. He pulled down his shield questioningly to see Valda rubbing her hands together gleefully.

It was not terribly far into the descent when Valda began to feel it. The now-familiar feeling of peace, resonating, pulsating in time with her mind. She allowed her euphoric feeling to spread across her face in a dreamlike smile.

When they rounded the corner, she was ready to welcome the Mana Stone… but the Stone was not all they found there.

Before it stood a blond man, slightly attractive had it not been for the cruel grin streaking his face. A blood-red cape covered his body, and his head was adorned with a crown of no nation of this world, golden wings flaring and a golden tail reaching down his back. He reached expectantly towards the Stone, its placid flickers of light seeming to grow more agitated.

Valda did not need to be told who it was, nor did her companions.

"Dragon Emperor! The Mana Stones will not be yours!" Trust Richard to be the first to dive into the battle, without a thought as to the consequences. Loki was more circumspect, stealthily creeping against the wall on the opposing side of the Stone.

The Dragon Emperor barely batted an eye at the Lord tearing towards him with sword ready. He remained absolutely still, but when Richard was almost upon him, the dark force exploded. Even unskilled with the magic of Shade, Valda could sense the tremendous force of energy that had been expended, and as the cloud cleared, she saw Richard's crumpled form. Behind the Dragon Emperor, she saw Loki dive forward, sword whirling, and hope surged within her. But their foe carelessly cast a fireball backwards, so sure of himself as to not even look, and Loki fell as well.

Valda screamed, and with all her might, flung lightning towards the Dragon Emperor. But in her anger, she had lost control of her spell, missing her target completely, and as she ran towards the injured Richard, a powerful gust of wind slammed her to the ground. She rolled over and over, to land facedown in the dirt.

Struggling to hands and knees, she felt not a magic spell, but an ordinary hand, pushing her down roughly, then shoving her onto her back. Valda coughed from the dust.

There, inches above her, was the face of the Dragon Emperor. His skin was as pale as hers, his blue eyes even paler, and there was nothing human in his expression. She tried to form a spell, but knew she had thrown away her energy reserves in that useless, panicked attempt.

"Don't even try it, Sorceress." His voice was harsh and grating as he looked down on her, his hands pressing her shoulders to the ground. "You think you can defeat me, without even the second class change? Who do you think you are, a Magus?" He laughed then, a cackling, unpleasant sound. "Should I even waste magic to finish you?" He jerked her arms together to grab both wrists in his left hand, and Valda flailed uselessly as his right hand went to her neck.

That last-minute movement was all that preserved the Dragon's Emperor's life, as the sword suddenly appeared through his abdomen rather than his heart.

His grip on her suddenly loosened, Valda rolled out of the way before his inhuman blood dripped over her. She pulled herself into a sitting position to see Loki, sword shining with a soft light where it was visible poking out of the Dragon Emperor's body. As their enemy grunted and bled, Loki seemed to stand taller and stronger.

But the fight was not to be done so easily. With a shriek that tapered into a piercing squeal, before her Valda saw the Dragon Emperor stretch and transform into the body of a dragon.

Though no taller than a man, the beast easily slithered off Loki's sword, the Swordmaster stumbling slightly. The bleeding gash on his belly did not touch his wings, and with a few strong flaps, they watched the Dragon Emperor soar into the sky, tearing across the valley with unexpected speed.

He was already lost to them. As one, Valda and Loki ran towards their fallen comrade.

Valda threw herself against the chest of her lover, her head against his heart. It still beat, but his breathing was labored. "Damn it! What can we do without healing magic?"

Loki, meanwhile, had picked up Richard's sword hand, his own hand clenching the Lord's wrist around the Excalibur. A moment later, the weapon shone with the same light as Loki's Ragnarok had earlier. Loki lifted Richard's limp hand to his waist.

"What are you doing?!" the Sorceress shrieked.

"Quiet, Valda!" Loki replied, though not harshly. "It's the only way!" And with that, he plunged Richard's sword into his own leg, crying out despite himself.

Valda looked in horror at the wound growing in Loki's body, but suddenly realized that she could feel Richard's breathing growing stronger underneath her hands. She turned to look at his face, and saw his eyes open, slightly glazed but very much awake and alive.

She helped him to a sitting position, and as his strength flowed back, he pulled his weapon out of Loki's body. Loki crumpled to the ground, hand going to the deep gash in his leg.

To Valda's surprise, Richard only laughed. "Loki. One of your new tricks?"

Loki laughed as well, even while wincing slightly from pain. "A moon saber, a little spell of Luna's. Takes life from another. Though I think I stole a good chunk of the Dragon Emperor's life, so perhaps you should thank him."

"You're _both_ crazy!" Valda cried, her royal composure having flown away completely as she rummaged for something with which to bind Loki's bleeding wound. "Is _this_ the way you handle things?"

"Hush, Valda," Richard replied, as his arms reached around the blubbering ruler of Altena. "I think you need more attention than Loki does now." He pulled her to his chest with one arm, then reached out to his friend with the other. Valda felt the twinge of healing magic, and before her eyes, Loki's flesh knit together. Loki stood and flexed the leg to demonstrate he was as good as new.

Valda's tears flowed nevertheless, as she buried her face against Richard's shoulder. She reveled in the comfort his arms provided, until the sobs broke into hiccups, and she looked at the Prince's face, suddenly mortified. But he only smiled at her, gently stroking her hair until the tears were gone.

--

A couple hours of rest, and all were ready to proceed. Valda, having retained her ordinary composure, pointed out to the others that there had been no sign of the Earth Spirit in the confrontation at the Stone. Therefore, he must still be deeper.

It was a more subdued group that descended into the Valley in search of Gnome. The creatures now seemed only a minor inconvenience after their near-death experiences at the hands of the Dragon Emperor. Valda sent out half-hearted bursts of lightning towards those the men did not easily slash with their swords.

She was jerked out of her blue mood by a much larger hedgehog skittering across their path, somewhere deep in the valley. Perhaps four feet tall, its spines were longer than her dagger, and Loki's first swipe only clanged against its armor. Nevertheless, a few swipes and a lightning zap from Valda sent it squealing further into the valley.

"What was _that_?" Richard wondered.

"The Jewel Eater, of course! An incredibly dangerous beast, born once every thousand years!"

Valda wheeled at the sound of the new voice, to find herself face to face with a jovial floating little man. It seemed they had run across the Elemental.

"Dangerous? _That_ thing?" scoffed Loki.

"Well," Gnome replied, "it's really just a baby right now. Probably another twenty years before it grows up. But it's already big enough to cause trouble in the Dwarf Village, so I've been down here chasing it away."

"Completely missing what's been going on at the Mana Stone," Loki replied crossly. Valda maintained her manners, but truthfully, she felt much the same.

"What?" The Elemental suddenly lost his cheerful expression, growing ever more serious as the Fairy emerged from her hiding place, somber as always, and Loki related the events earlier.

"I will do as the others have, and put all the protection I can over this Stone," Gnome informed them gravely. "But you know, the Dragon Emperor will grow stronger all the time, and eventually it will not be enough. It might be days, weeks, or years, but eventually he will find a way to overcome our power, and he will be back."

Loki mirrored the Fairy's expression. "If we can stop him by any means, we will."

--

It was a weary party that strolled towards the gates of Forcena, four days later.

"Where to next?" wondered Loki. "We've been to all the Stones whose locations are known."

"Well, if we don't know the locations of the others, it stands to reason it might take the Dragon Emperor a while to find them as well," reasoned Valda.

"Except the Beast Kingdom," suggested Richard.

Valda looked at him. "We both signed a treaty not to enter the kingdom for twenty years, Richard. I would rather not break that if we do not have to."

Richard contemplated that for a moment. "Well, if anyone would know, the Priest of Light would know. Perhaps Wendel should be our next stop."

They discussed the possibilities back and forth, as they entered the city of Forcena, until Loki suddenly stopped in front of a street to their right. "I'm just going to..."

Richard nodded. "Stay with Simone, Loki. We'll have plenty of time to find you before leaving the city again."

Valda remained politely silent until she and Richard were out of earshot. "I would have liked to meet her," she finally said.

Richard took her hand in his as they approached the palace. "He's proud of her, but he's also private. Let him have his time. You and I will have plenty to occupy ourselves here as is," he told her, as shouts announced the return of the Prince and palace attendants rushed to greet him.

--

With the Prince back in the kingdom, suddenly his time was filled with courtiers vying for attention. Between that, and Loki choosing to remain in the village, Valda found herself often alone despite conducting Altenan business as she could. After the weeks traveling with the two men, it felt odd indeed.

But each night, no matter how late he was able to get away, Richard's knock could be heard, gently in case she was sleeping. She never was.

Together this night they lay together on her chaise, Valda reclining as she sipped her goblet of wine, Richard laying his head in her lap, peacefully enjoying a few moments when no one requested his attention. For herself, Valda was quite content just feeling the company of the man near her, her free hand absentmindedly massaging his back.

The tender scene was a long way from what she would have pictured not so terribly long ago. But, she realized, looking down at the closed eyes of the Prince, she had grown rather fond of him. She amused herself thinking of him as one of her consorts back home. A man with his presence? He could never be reduced to a casual fling.

Richard turned his head upwards and opened his eyes to meet her gaze as if he could read her thoughts. He reached up to caress the side of her face as she sat up slightly and leaned over him, her purple hair brushing his arms.

They were close to the end of their quest, they knew. And they weren't sure how much longer it would be, how much longer they would have this time together.

Abruptly Richard turned and pushed himself onto hands and knees, now looking down at her. Valda had long since learned that Richard wouldn't say a word before he was ready, so she remained still and watched him work out what he needed to, the struggle showing on his face. She met his eyes, now above her, leaning back against the cushions.

"Valda..." he began.

"Valda... we don't know what might happen when we confront the Dragon Emperor again... who knows what we are facing next." The dark thoughts were unusual from a man usually filled with romantic sentiments.

"But, just in case we were to lose one of our party... I just want to know.. that nothing was left unsaid... That's why I need to tell you... I love you..." he finished, the last words coming out in a rush. He leaned in close to her.

Valda did not speak; she didn't need to as she pulled his lips to hers, absent-mindedly letting the nearly-empty wine goblet fall to the floor. He placed his arms around her, letting his body settle against her.

Still kissing her deeply, he slid off the chaise. As he scooped her in his arms to carry her to the bed, she knew she had given in to him, to this moment, and it was like nothing she had ever felt before. She wanted nothing that night except to be with him, and as he lay next to her and they pulled each other close, all thoughts of reason and logic flew from her head.

She knew it was a mistake, nothing could come of this, but if this was love, she would take it for as long as she could.


	7. The City of the Goddess

**7. THE CITY OF THE GODDESS**

The trio arrived in Jad weary and confused. The few-days respite in Forcena had temporarily energized them, but now, inching closer to Wendel, tormented by uncertainty, they were frustrated, and the stress was wearing on them.

Richard was eager to return to the affairs of his kingdom, Loki was taking his renewed separation from Simone hard, and Valda - well, Valda just wanted to go home. She was more tired than she had ever been before, and it didn't help that she seemed to be coming down with something. It was making her irritable.

She shook her head slightly to wake herself up. Richard looked at her with concern, but she gave his hand a quick squeeze to reassure him that she was fine. Just a little out of sorts.

Perhaps a little _more_ than out of sorts, she realized, when she lost her temper completely as the innkeeper told them they would have to wait four days to continue travel to Wendel. "The cave's only safe to cross on the Mana Holy Day," he informed them. "Monsters guard it the remainder of the time."

"Goddess _damn_ it! Four more days! Can we just get to the Stone and take care of the Drag- _Hey_!" Her sentence was abruptly cut off as she found herself being dragged by Richard into the privacy of their rooms.

"What's gotten into you, Valda?" asked Loki incredulously. "Do you realize what you almost said in the middle of an inn's common room?"

He was right. Valda felt a slight blush. "I'm sorry. I am just so sick of delays, I want this to be over with." She curled up on the bed, feeling snippy. At least, this far from home, in a nondescript inn room in Jad, the Princess of Altena had the luxury of being a little petulant.

"Well, if we want to go tomorrow, I can't imagine that a few monsters in the Cave of Waterfalls would stop us," Loki suggested.

"No, Loki," Richard interjected, looking at Valda's eyes growing heavy. "I won't risk her more than necessary." The sentiment comforted her, as did Richard's now-familiar touch, as she drifted off.

--

Perhaps they should have braved the monsters, Valda thought five days later. Without them, this trip was rather boring, even though the cave was quite pretty, small waterfalls filling azure pools everywhere. But days of killing time in Jad had made the men anxious to be doing something, anything, and Loki gripped his sword as if the rocks itself would attack. Valda found herself fingering her dagger often herself.

But finally, a week after leaving Forcena, they found themselves being led to the audience chamber of the Priest of Light. Valda suppressed another yawn. How could she still be tired, after all the sleep she'd been getting?

A thought occurred to her. "Doesn't the fairy want to be here?" she whispered to Loki.

Loki paused for a moment. "She says she would only frighten the Priest into thinking the situation is more severe than it is. She's the quiet sort, only speaking up when there's really some need."

More severe? If the Dragon Emperor trying to use the power of the Mana Stones was not so bad, Valda shuddered to think what might be. Perhaps there was a worse storm ahead. She pushed the thought down for the moment.

"Greetings, your Highnesses and good Sir," intoned the Priest. He looked just as Valda had pictured him, a long white beard dangling in front of his holy robes. He carried with it the aura of wisdom one would expect from someone of such advanced age; she would have been surprised to hear he was less than eighty. It reminded her how short a time she herself had been ruling.

Loki knelt before the altar, while Richard and Valda gave the more subtle nods that were expected from royalty. "What brings you here?" the Priest asked.

Richard gave the barest possible outline of their quest, merely indicating that they needed to find the Mana Stones on a matter of great urgency, and they could only locate four. He kept the name of the Dragon Emperor out of it, but nevertheless the Priest's expression grew somber.

"The Mana Stones," he mused. "Surely your business must be greatly important for the royalty of two powerful nations to be found here together, so far from home."

The Priest stepped forward and placed a hand on the shoulder of Loki, who had not yet risen as Richard spoke. Loki looked up in surprise. Valda wondered if the Priest could sense the Fairy's presence; there was nothing else that would have indicated Loki was anything other than Richard's retainer. For a long moment, there was no sound in the room but their own breaths, as the Priest inclined his head to stare not just into Loki's eyes, but his very soul. Valda recognized the subtle signs of strain as the Swordmaster forced himself to meet that disturbingly penetrating gaze.

When his eyes returned to Valda, they were clouded and somber.

"I can feel it too, Sorceress. Mana is fading. How much, I cannot yet tell... I can only hope that the Goddess has not weakened so much that the God-Beasts can be released from the Stones..."

The God-Beasts. Stuff of legend, Valda thought. She could only hope she would never see such a thing in her lifetime.

"Our enemy has been trying to unseal the Stones, but so far he has not succeeded, so it seems Mana is holding for the moment," replied Richard, giving up discretion. "But if he did... what might happen next?"

"The Stones would give him power, but more importantly, one could enter the Holyland and take the Sword of Mana... the power of the Goddess herself..."

"And could potentially release and control the God-Beasts," Valda finished. The Sword. It might be worse than she had thought. The Sword was an entity more mysterious than even the Goddess herself, but legend said that whoever held the Sword had the powers of life and death itself. A chill passed through her as she realized that might be the true goal of the Dragon Emperor.

The Priest turned to the others. "Unfortunately, all I can tell you is the location of the Stone of Light. It is high up in the mountains, easily accessible by air, but the overland route is far more treacherous. I would expect the climb to take several days."

"How did it get up there?" Loki wondered.

Valda knew. "It always was there. The Holy City was once located there, until a thousand years ago, their prince made a pact with the underworld and destroyed his kingdom. Wendel was founded centuries later, but now, it seems only natural barriers protect the stone."

"And if it is easily accessible by air..." Richard left the sentence hanging, but Valda knew the ending. The Dragon Emperor could reach there. Probably much sooner than they could. The only saving grace was that he did not have the chance to visit the Priest of Light and find out where the Stone was.

"Don't worry, I will send a guide with you," the Priest told them. "When do you wish to leave?"

"Tomorrow morning, if possible," Richard said.

The Priest nodded. "Then let it be so. I will send your guide to meet you at the inn."

--

Valda was thankful that she had let the men talk her out of her dress and into a pair of leggings, just this once. Though they felt rather different to her, she shuddered to think what it would have been like climbing this mountain in a silken gown.

She had expected something like Rolante, but whereas a couple months ago that climb would have seemed exceptionally rigorous, now she began to appreciate the maintenance the Amazons did on their trails. Here, there was nothing, but a tricky climb among rocks, setting their feet down wherever they could on the steep slope, grateful for even the smallest outcrops.

Even as Valda struggled, their guide handled it all well, politely slowing down to wait for them. Cecil insisted this was indeed the quickest way up.

He was an attractive young man, perhaps sixteen years of age, with the silvery-white hair that was common in Wendel, even on young people. He explained that he was learning the skills of a warrior in order to protect the Goddess, as Richard chatted jovially with him.

"It's a shame I haven't been able to talk him into coming back with us to Forcena," Richard told Valda. "I bet he would make a fine Paladin."

Valda could only nod. The strain of climbing was showing on her, but she put up a good front in front of the men, not wanting to admit how badly she simply wanted to lie down for a nap. Richard wasn't hiding his knightly desire to protect her; nowadays, she could barely sneeze without him appearing at her side. Comforting in its own way, but the Sorceress reminded herself that she was a ruler in her own right, and she could not allow herself the luxury of becoming dependent on him.

So she gritted her teeth, made her denials, and hoped they would soon reach the top.

Days of slow climbing later, Valda had practically given up hope of ever seeing flat ground again, but they crested a rise and in the distance she saw a group of ruined buildings, still bearing the luster of the gold found in its rocks. The Ancient City of Light. The sun's downward arc reflected off the walls, making the city seem to burn as it once had in reality, a thousand years ago.

So near their goal, and yet so far. None thought it wise that they attempt entry in the nighttime, as they made camp perhaps five miles from the city. The sun finally fell before the horizon, and though the time was only early evening, the mood of their little camp was hushed and subdued. No one felt the urge to lighten it, even as Valda wished the gloom would break.

She shivered involuntarily, and was not surprised when a minute later a cloak appeared around her shoulders. This time, she dropped the mask of strength she had been holding up, and leaned gratefully back against Richard. He pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her with the blanket, as she let herself feel enclosed and safe, if only for the moment.

--

As the morning rose, Valda felt knots in her stomach. That, in itself, suggested something momentous was about to happen, as if she had not expected it already. She pushed away the proffered breakfast; nausea came over her at the sight.

The foursome advanced onto the flattened mountaintop where the city lay, but perhaps a half mile from the entrance, Cecil abruptly stopped. "I think it would be better if I waited for you here," he told them. "Whatever you are after... I think it's beyond my skills. There's something weird in the air. I'll be waiting for you when you come out. Good luck," he finished.

Thanking the young man for his help, they approached the city with trepidation. There _was_ something strange here. Even the men could feel it by now, Loki's left hand on his sword hilt an unconscious mirror of Richard's right hand on his. The fighters flanked Valda as packed dirt gave way to a path of worn golden bricks. The remnants of the lagoon that had once surrounded and nourished the city lapped lazily at the base of the structures before them.

She peered up at the magnificent exterior wall as they passed under one of its arches to enter the city proper. It was like slipping into another world, the world of a thousand years ago. Valda tried to picture the massacre of the people, the destruction of one of the two great cities of the ancient world, and suddenly she could almost hear the screams and cries of those long dead. She shuddered, and forced herself to concentrate until silence surrounded her once again.

Even so, the haunted feeling lingered. Nothing had been seen, nothing had attacked them since leaving Wendel, and the silence here somehow felt more dangerous than any monsters would have been.

It almost was a relief when the two phantom knights appeared.

Silvery suits of armor they were, but somehow Valda knew that if she flipped up the visor up, she would find nothingness inside. The ghosts of the ancient city approached the party from opposite sides with a grim determination to protect a city which they did not realize no longer existed. Richard and Loki pulled their swords, while the Sorceress between them began forming her spell.

Not knowing the weak point, Valda flung out a simple fireball, neatly directed both ways. She scored a clean hit, the figures stumbling and appearing to take injury.

But they straightened, and Valda was in for an unpleasant surprise. By now, she knew this Mana signature from the many times Richard had used it.

"They're using healing magic!" she announced, surprised.

"I know!' Richard called back. "Leave this to us!" And he dove for the spirit nearest him.

Valda threw spells to knock their opponents off balance, as the two pairs danced around her, blades flashing. Loki seemed to be making steady progress on her right, his enemy's sharp chops and swipes looking amateur as the Swordmaster proved the truth of his title. He deftly parried blows even without a shield, deflecting a swipe with his own blade, then quickly whirling it underneath to swipe his opponent across the chest. The silver knight wasn't even given a chance to heal himself.

Richard, however, was struggling with the other combatant, both healing themselves with every injury, the two opponents locked in a stalemate. Even with the little she knew about swordfighting, Valda could see the phantom knight was as skilled, as quick, as Richard himself, and could heal just as Richard could...

The answer struck her. "Richard! I don't know how, but these things have the same skills as a Lord!"

"How'd they get them? Nevermind, what do I do about it?' Richard called, just dodging the swipe that would have cleaved directly into his chest.

"You need something to tip the balance! Loki! What can you give him?"

"Try this," the Swordmaster called back, barely averting his attention from the knight he was now driving against the wall. "It'll suck its magic right out so it can't heal." A greenish glow encompassed Richard's sword, giving Valda an odd sensation that she thought indicated Dryad's magic.

As Richard's sword cleaved into his opponent, the suit of armor tried to heal, but the spell dissipated like a puff of air before forming. The ghost paused, as if in surprise. Richard smiled that big, jovial grin as he raised his sword again.

Valda heard a crash of metal from the opposite direction, and turned to see Loki stepping over what was now nothing more than a pile of battered armor parts. He ran towards his liege, but Richard motioned him back to stay with Valda, as the prince gleefully pressed his new advantage.

Blow after blow now hit home, until the suit of armor fell face forward on the bricks, the spirit inside having disappeared to return to wherever the souls of the ancient city now lived.

--

"Where to, Princess?" asked Richard, breathing hard. The fight had taken more out of him than anything in a while.

Valda remained silent for a moment, trying to focus on what she was sensing. "It's this way," she announced finally, striding left of the entrance.

It was too much to hope for that there would be a direct and easy route. Stairs led them up and down between the different levels of the city, sometimes forcing them to slog through pools of water that had probably stagnated for a thousand years. Meandering through one of the ancient buildings to emerge back in the sunlight, Valda suddenly felt a sharp spike of Mana from her left, and knew they had reached their goal.

Pushing down yet another gurgle from her stomach, she practically flew down the stairs, heedless of her own safety, to emerge on a small terrace overlooking the lagoon. And on the terrace itself...

The Mana Stone of Light awaited them. As did the object of their quest.

Behind the Dragon Emperor, a flicker of motion drew her eye to a second presence on the dais. Lumina, the Light Elemental, a small fluffy cloud of Mana, flitted about nervously. "You can't have it! I won't let you unseal the Stone!" she whimpered, black eyes staring at the intruder.

"Shush, you. Your power alone will do little to stop me." He cackled. "Light. Ever the weakest of the elementals, suitable only for healing and defense." He stepped forward, and Valda noted with satisfaction he winced slightly in pain, unconsciously reaching for the site of Loki's injury.

Richard stepped forward, but Valda laid one hand on his arm. She could feel the power the Dragon Emperor was holding, this close to the Mana Stone. Richard would be obliterated before even getting to him.

In any case, the element of surprise was already lost; holding that much Mana, the Dragon Emperor could feel their presence. "So finally you've caught up," the blond man laughed, so arrogant he did not even turn to face them. "You wouldn't have had a chance if I had been able to release the seals on these blasted stones, but the Goddess is too strong yet. I'd need someone with a better connection to her power. Perhaps you would care to help, Sorceress?" He turned, to look straight at Valda.

"Never," Valda responded, forcefully, but even as she spoke, she felt a touch on her mind, seeming to brush her magic power, pushing, tentatively, then harder. Valda resisted within herself, and pushed back. The strange feeling brushed gently, making her spine tingle, but then disappeared.

The Dragon Emperor only nodded, as if having determined something.

Valda's eyes widened in shock in response. For just a split second, she could have sworn she felt him inside her head, his evil touch on her soul… and the idea faded almost as soon as it had formed, leaving her shaking her head. _What was that she had been thinking? _It couldn't have been important, could it? In any case, not nearly as important as the task at hand, and she resolutely pushed the worry away, the thought of the thought disappearing just as neatly.

Richard, ever overconfident, jumped forward, having learned nothing from their last encounter. "For Forcena!" he cried with his slash, but just before his sword would have made contact, a fireball slammed into him, and Richard's body skidded against the far railing. Valda's heart sank as he lay there unmoving, but a second later, he let his sword arm fall to the ground with a groan. Lumina flew over to poke at him with one wispy protrusion.

Valda counterattacked with a deluge of icy magic. The Dragon Emperor allowed a momentary flinch, but as the spell poured over the terrace to splash into the lake below, he stood there looking just as whole as ever. "You are too weak yet, Sorceress," he told her. "When you have more strength, you may be some use to me."

Loki joined her side, sword hanging from his hand with exaggerated casualness. Ever willing to use the powers of stealth, he knew now not to make the mistake Richard did, biding his time for the chance to strike.

That knot that had been in the pit of her stomach only deepened, and Valda struggled to keep the nausea under control, sickened by the Dragon Emperor. She forced herself to contemplate the situation, when inside her head, the Light Elemental spoke. "Sorceress. You can use my magic best of all the elements, if you will only let me show you how. I may only be able to help you for a second, so be ready." Valda let her strength build slowly.

The Dragon Emperor sneered, he himself holding far more power than she at the moment. "What do you think you are going to do?"

"Cover me, Loki!" Valda cried, and released the pure power of Lumina, at the last fraction of a second feeling the power spike. Beams of pure holy energy, the energy of the saints themselves, poured down on the Dragon Emperor with a force she had never produced before. He screamed, and staggered… and retaliated.

Loki was already bounding up the steps from behind her, but faltered as their enemy countered. Nothing like the brush she had felt before, Valda now felt dark energy piercing her mind with blinding pain. Loki knelt next to her as she wailed, hands to her head as she fell to the ground, the Swordmaster powerless to stop the spell. "Valda, stay with me! Focus! Fight back against his power from inside!" He grasped her hand, and suddenly Valda was absolutely certain the Fairy was reaching for her through Loki. As Valda's eyes rolled back in her head, she sensed a small flow of energy fed into her from the man holding her, and she reached for it with all her might, grabbing for it as a branch in a flood. She clung to the glimmer of the Goddess's power with all her might, knowing it she let go of that one little speck, the dark energy would destroy her in an instant. Even so, death reached its tendrils towards her and she felt the light within her begin to fade.

Suddenly the spell shattered, the sudden release almost as painful as the attack itself. Valda sat up, goggle-eyed, and drew a deep breath, shaking her head to reassure herself she was alive.

Richard was gritting his teeth in pain, wobbling on his feet, but there was mad anger in his eyes. He clung to one arm of the Dragon Emperor, his captive madly dodging Richard's wild sword swipes. Blinded by anger and pain, Richard was fighting with little skill, but it was enough. Valda was free.

The trickle of the Goddess's power still pulsed within her, and it gave Valda an idea. "Stand back, Richard!" she shouted, as she began to wrap Lumina's power around it. Richard let go of the Dragon Emperor's arm, stumbling slightly himself, and Valda struck.

The saint beam that hit the Dragon Emperor square in the chest was not as strong as before, but the results were much more gratifying, as he was knocked clean off his feet. She had hoped to kill him with that strike, but still, he crawled forward, one arm reaching for the Mana Stone. Lumina zoomed wildly around it, and the Stone seemed to flicker angrily.

He glared at Valda with open hate. "I will not forget this, Sorceress!" he roared, wheezing as the Stone floated inches away from his touch. Loki strode towards the platform, sword hand tensed. "One day, I will find you, and I will take what you value most from you!"

As Loki raised his sword over their fallen foe, there was a blinding flash of light, and the Dragon Emperor disappeared.

--

As the afterimage of that blinding flash faded from vision, Valda's stomach churned in fear. After all this, their foe had eluded them somehow?

"It wasn't Mana," she told the others, her voice quavering. "Whatever he used to escape us... it was power that came from somewhere else."

Richard might have run to her, but it was taking all of Loki's strength just to keep the taller man on his feet. "Well, you did something there at the end. What was that? It was certainly effective."

"I've never done anything like that before... but... I think it had some of every element in it. I guess it was too much to hope for that it would kill him, but he should be injured for quite some time."

"I expect he won't be showing himself again for a while," Loki suggested.

"Then there's nothing that we can do," Richard concluded. "We can only hope that next time he appears, we will be able to stop him again."

"But if Mana keeps drying up the way it has been, it will only be easier to unseal the Stones... and that's the one thing we can't stop," Valda concluded. She felt more fearful than ever, and her stomach roiled.

"What's wrong, Valda? You look positively green," Loki asked.

Valda couldn't take it anymore. She ran to the railing of the terrace, and promptly threw up.


	8. Angel or Devil

**8. ANGEL OR DEVIL**

Looking back, it was now obvious to Valda that it had been morning sickness she had the day she, Loki, and Richard had seen the Dragon Emperor enemy escape them. Of course, she hadn't been very far along then. Now, it was a way of life to her. It was in fact quite difficult to channel Mana, or to rule a country, being continuously nauseous.

She hadn't figured it out before the trio parted. It had been a tender farewell, as Richard and Loki disembarked the ship at Maia, while Valda continued on.

_Loki threw his arms around her in a big hug, squeezing her like a sister. Valda knew she would miss him too, but it was a different thing. The Swordmaster bounded down the gangplank, leaving she and Richard alone on the bow of the ship, trying to ignore the bustle of passengers loading and unloading around them._

_They said nothing at first, Valda only leaning against his chest, their arms wrapped around each other for the last moments they could steal. After what seemed like forever, but not nearly long enough, Richard gently tilted her head up to his._

_"If only things were different," Richard sighed. "If only there was some way to make this work..."_

_"We've been over this for a week, Richard, even since we came down the mountain to Wendel," she had replied. "You agreed with me, it's not realistic for us to try to be married living half a world apart."_

_"I know," he told her, "but I can always dream, can't I?"_

_The bell rang then, announcing the ship was about to leave. Two whispered 'I love you's, one long kiss, and he was gone._

_Richard never turned back, but Valda stayed at the railing watching him walk away with Loki, until he was no longer visible, and for a time after that._

She knew exactly when it had happened, of course. That one night in Forcena, feeling so in love... She could have smacked herself for not having been more careful; the "Reason" should have been removed from her title for that alone.

Other than her lack of planning, though, it was mostly a good thing. A child would guarantee a heir for Altena, and with the child's father being a magic user himself, albeit a weaker one, it virtually guaranteed their progeny would be a strong wizard. She knew at some point in time she would have to choose a suitable man to father her child. One couldn't do much better than the Prince of Forcena.

The father. That was a tough one. They had been so in love, but Valda knew love was not always meant to be forever, and she felt satisfied to have experienced it. Until this little... complication... came along. Altenan queens usually chose the heir's father first; then once the child was born, they decided whether or not to actually marry the man.

This method would probably not be taken well by the ruler of another major nation, one with very different traditions.

Until Richard married and produced a son, this child was not only the heir to Altena, but Forcena as well. And Richard did not seem to show signs of settling down anytime soon. Almost thirty, and she had been the only one he had ever fallen in love with. She could see him waiting until he was fifty to marry.

--

"Should I tell Richard?" Valda asked Kayen. He would not tell her what to do, but he would help her think it through.

"Valda, my dear daughter, now going to be a mother herself." Her father poured another glass of Altenan icewine, and sat back in his chair.

"The only living heir to Altena and Forcena. That's a problem. How do you think Richard would take the news?"

Valda knew the answer to that. "I don't think he'd take it very well, and his people would be outraged. They would say I am taking their heir away. As soon as he finds out I am pregnant, he will insist on marriage before our child is born. He thinks their formal way of passing down the throne is better than ours - like a ruler can't be a skilled ruler unless her parents were married."

"You mean his parents," Kayen corrected. "Only sons inherit the throne of Forcena."

"Ridiculous," Valda snorted. "Altena will give the throne to a man if no daughters are born. In Forcena, the king could have six daughters, and then give the throne to a distant cousin??"

"But you see, then, that there are two different situations, whether you are carrying a boy or a girl. So first, Valda, what happens if this child is a boy?"

That was easy. "Once we married, Richard has his heir, even though I might have to leave my son in Forcena. Once the boy is born, and thus considered 'legitimate' - " Valda cringed; she hated that terminology - "then the marriage can be dissolved, and I return here to choose a man to provide the Altenan heir."

"Excellent," Kayen replied. He leaned in forward to Valda. "Now, what if you give birth to a girl?"

This was the possibility Valda had been dreading. "If we were to marry, she becomes a Princess of Forcena. She will not inherit the throne there."

"Right. She will no longer be accepted here. Once she enters the royal family of Forcena, Altena will never be able to see her as the Princess of Reason. So there is only one thing to save your daughter..."

"...And that's to remain unmarried. Which means I can't tell him," Valda finished. She was silent for a moment. "How will I _keep_ it from him? When he finds out I have a daughter, he'll be able to reason out _whose _daughter it is. He'll know I kept his daughter from him, and all kinds of diplomatic problems will result."

Kayen looked amused. "You're talking as if you already expect a girl, Valda," he told her. "Perhaps that is the first thing you should try and find out."

--

_Was it wrong to dislike Wendel? _Valda wondered. It wasn't that she didn't believe in the Goddess - she found it comforting to pray to her, even more so than the average Altenan - but day-to-day, it was the Elementals who Altena had the greatest connection towards, and from which their great magic and technology derived. To resort to coming to Wendel for something Altena could not solve - well, it made her feel like a bit of a beggar.

Too bad none of the elementals knew much about pregnancy. Dryad, maybe, but finding the reclusive Wood Spirit would have been even harder than coming to Wendel. Altena had given up on applying her spells decades ago. The Archmages said Dryad just didn't like the way they used magic.

Just because she was making this trip to Wendel did not mean she wanted everyone to know the Queen of Altena was in town. Even less so, the reason she was here; the fewer people that knew outside Altena, the better. So she walked up to the Temple of Light wearing a nondescript traveler's cloak, the violet hair identifying her nationality carefully tucked away. She had left her mage-guards outside the Cave of Waterfalls; if one could not be safe in Wendel, one could not be safe anywhere.

She reached under her cloak to touch her stomach, a gesture that was becoming instinctive. Even after five months, she wouldn't show through the loose robes that covered her now.

Entering the temple, she kept her head low, and joined the crowds waiting to see the Priest. Had she chosen to declare herself, she certainly would have been seen first, but for a question this mundane and this personal, somehow, it felt entirely appropriate to mingle with the common people. For today, she was one of them.

Though, she was probably the only one in this crowd that could feel the Mana power this strongly.

She saw one other expectant mother, and several families with children. The naming of children and request for blessings was a common reason to visit the Priest of Light; for some poorer families, this might be the only pilgrimage they would make in their lifetime.

The hours drew on, and the Sorceress leaned against the wall to close her eye, letting the familiar warmth of Mana surround her like a bath.

Finally, a Temple guard came to escort her to the Priest's audience chamber.

She had already heard of the recent death of the previous Priest, though she could see traces of his father in the current Priest of Light, his son, himself probably close to fifty. This new Priest, of course, would have no memory of her from her previous visit, and she was thankful for that.

"Welcome, daughter," he greeted her, as she bowed ritually before the altar and the Goddess statue. "It is not often that we are visited by an Altenan magician." Valda started, but composed herself. Of course. With this much Mana in the air, her power should have been immediately detectable to another magic user. She tried not to take offense at the Priest's reference of "daughter", or the use of the diminutive "magician". Even a queen needs to be reminded she is only another person every once in a while, she thought.

She kept the hood over her head, but opened it in the front. "Your Holiness, I would like to find out if the Goddess has given me a son or a daughter."

The Priest looked amused. Valda idly wondered how many times a week he was asked that question. Nevertheless, he approached her to place left hand on her head, over the hood; then his right on her stomach. The touch on her body had no trace of suggestiveness, but something in her wanted to squirm nevertheless.

The Priest closed his eyes for a long time, and Valda could hear no sound but her own breath and heart, the blood pumping in her ears.

Suddenly she felt a sharp kick from the being in her abdomen, and she involuntarily yelped. The Priest opened his eyes. He smiled as his gentle brown eyes looked into her pale blue.

"You will have a daughter," he said, "with your wisdom, and her father's spirit. Whether that makes ice or fire, angel or devil, I know not."

Valda was tempted to ask how he would know anything about the father. But perhaps it was better she said as little as possible, if she wanted to keep her secrets. She thanked him, and left the temple, emerging into the late afternoon sun.

As she squinted her eyes, she considered what she had been told. A daughter. That made one decision for her, but she had already moved on to wondering what the little girl would be like. Would the best of her and Richard show through?

--

Valda was already wondering if Diabla might have been a better name than Angela.

It as all Richard's fault, she told herself, attempting to calm yet another of her daughter's screaming fits. She herself had been a quiet and happy baby; this tiny terror could not possibly have come from her side.

Motherhood had made her more popular with the Altenan people. They were joyful that their young ruler had produced an heir so quickly, and just as she expected, no one particularly cared who the father was. In fact, she had ever greater respectability; most considered her a full Queen, now that there was a little Princess as well.

But for Valda, it was a mixed blessing. She found it hard to keep the country running, and harder still to keep it warm, with her new baby taking so much of her time and energy. The spells wrapped around the cities wavered even as she poured more and more Mana into them. Where once the magical fires used to heat Altena Castle had roared like bonfires, now they sputtered. Valda felt splintered and frustrated.

But as Angela slowly calmed down, Valda looked at the new little person in her life. Her eyes were dark gray, but she had inherited her mother's violet hair, just a shade darker, making her Altenan heritage unmistakable. This girl would be her daughter forever. _And now_, Valda thought to herself, _she will be able to grow up to be Queen_.


	9. The Path of Light

**9. THE PATH OF LIGHT**

As Angela grew older, Valda returned to unfinished business. The second class change had been somewhat pushed aside as her young handful of a daughter grew; and the population had been so excited about their Princess, that the minor detail that her mother was not yet a full Queen somewhat eluded them.

Nevertheless, politics demanded this be completed, if no other reason. And Valda wanted it. Somehow, that boost that Lumina had given her at the last minute, in the Ancient Ruins of Light, had bumped up her magic ability permanently. For years, she had made a dedicated study of the complex patterns of higher-level spells, but they had eluded her reach. Now, she formed the Mana of high-level single-element spells like the simplest ball of light. But even as she had already showed her talent for twisting the elements together, rivaling the highest wizards of the kingdom, she had literally hit a wall, _feeling _the blockage every time she pushed her limits. She could go no further without this change.

Uncomfortably, she realized she would need it, too. She had wished she could have blamed the loss of Mana on the Dragon Emperor, but even after she, Loki, and Richard had weakened him, nothing changed. Five years later, she could see how much Mana had weakened, even in such a short time. She didn't understand it, exactly, but there were other factors obviously at work, and it was ever more difficult to sustain her country. She would need all the power she could get.

--

A grand contingent awaited her this time, including the visiting Priest of Wendel. This was, of course, a momentous occasion for Altena.

Valda would have just as well done with a little less attention, as the crowds poured in to fill the mountain crevasse that led to the Labyrinth of Ice. Cheering citizenry might have at any other time filled her with pride, but uncertainty had gripped her days before. It was too much to hope for that this would be as simple as the last time.

A quiet letter to the Queen of Rolante, the nearest person she could think of who had been through it, had done little to allay her fears. Riesz had sent her back a lengthy and warm reply, first describing the events of the royal marriage, the taking of a royal name (Minerva, which Riesz scrawled in parentheses after her boldly written Amazon name). She shared the news of her own daughter's birth, followed by a covert promise to honor Valda's wish for privacy in the matter of her own child; Valda had felt somewhat guilty leaving out the detail altogether. No questions asked, for which the Altenan was grateful. But when Riesz reached the topic Valda had broached, the tone grew almost frightening.

_"You cannot be told, for it is the place of another to tell you," _Riesz had written_. "You cannot prepare. You cannot know, until the moment you are there, when everything you know may be turned inside out. The willingness to face the change, the fear to make the choice, the wisdom to understand it must be made, becomes part of the Gift of Mana itself."_

Riesz's cryptic words were still echoing in her head as she raised her voice to announce that only a small party would accompany her inside. It was someone else speaking to this crowd, it was the Queen of Reason, while inside Valda cringed in fear. She had been nervous the first time, but experience past did not make facing this task any easier. In fact, after all she had seen, all she had done, she was terrified of what she might have to become.

Valda heard her own voice remain steady as she asked for three of her Archmages to enter to witness, as tradition demanded. Was it coincidence that her father stepped forward as one of the three, or a small mercy? The other two, a man and a woman, she did not remember the names of. Nor, at the moment, did she care. As others rustled forward, she raised her hand to signal a stop. Political event or no, part of this was very private and personal, and she did not want a huge audience inside the cave.

Five-year-old Angela stood next to her, her eyes seeming to lack attention but in fact taking in everything at once. Valda made a rash and spontaneous decision. Maybe it was a mother's indulgence, but she suddenly wanted very much for her little girl to be part of this.

She took the small hand in hers, and stepped towards the now-foreboding darkness of the cave mouth.

The light of day disappeared as she entered, but it was not simple shadow into which Valda entered. Though her eyes took a moment to adjust, the pearlescent light of the Mana Stone took over not just her vision, but her heart.

She had never seen a Mana Stone without those feelings of peace, of awe, stepping in to overtake whatever she was feeling at the moment, and this time was no different. Her fright was still there, but somehow coiled itself into a ball surrounded by the strange warmth of the Stone of Ice. Valda let herself be wrapped up in it as well.

Angela tugged away from her mother, and ran up to the floating Mana Stone. It was only her mother's sharp reprimand that kept her from touching the Stone itself, the girl entranced by the dancing lights before her, as if it was a child's toy, though she had been told what it was, and what it could do.

It was times like these that Valda saw the influence of her daughter's father. She was as reckless as Richard ever was.

Valda gripped in her other arm the book she had brought with her, the Arcane Book. It was used only by the Queens, whereas all others chose one of the many Books of Secrets or Books of Rune. There was also the Forbidden Book, but... well, it _was _the Forbidden Book...

The Arcane Book was the Queen's book of Altenan history, rewritten every generation. Valda had already done her duty to write the new one, the new copy kept secretly in the vaults. She had entered it all, including the true nature of Angela's parentage. In her hands was the original of the prior version; it would be burnt to ash, she knew, by the time she was done here today, a tradition that symbolized the moving of history forward. Not that it was gone; it was the version the rest of the world would be reading for some time yet.

A copy of the older version had been sent to Richard on this, the occasion of her coronation, with a note "from Queen Valda, with everlasting _friendship _between our two countries..." With every diplomatic communication, she kept up this facade, cringing as she wrote Richard's name as if just the cordial ruler of another country...

She realized she was procrastinating. She stepped up to the Stone.

The last thing she saw was her daughter's eyes.

--

Princess Valda had been expecting something much the same as before, the vague edge of consciousness where something barely eclipsed nothingness, but the snowy cliff edge she stood on was absolutely solid. She could see in the distance the city of Altena, and the palace above it, its lights shining bright against the black stone of the mountains that flanked the town on three sides.

The normal cold of the air did not bother her. But in the distance, a thin whistling broke the silence. It was first a whisper of a breeze, but it quickly rose to a shout. The sudden gusts of wind that arose chilled her to the bone. She buried her head in her hands as her gown and hair whipped around her, the wind searing her skin with its frozen breath.

The crystal chimes of Undine's voice broke through the gale's cries, and the wind tempered to a mildly uncomfortable gust. "It's Mana itself. It's changing, it's fading. Can't you feel it, Sorceress?"

Valda looked up, and started in surprise. Maybe it was because she had last seen her own daughter before coming here, that she had pictured what might be Undine's mother.

The figure was just as beautiful as the Ice Elemental, but there was something more. Where Undine was perhaps half her size, this mermaid was taller than her, but the difference did not end there. Delicate features had an expression that seemed absolutely timeless, and wide sparkling eyes showed an infinite wisdom she had never seen before...

The answer hit her, and she fell to her knees in the snow, mindless of the icy moisture seeping through. "The Goddess," she gasped.

The Goddess seemed not to have heard her. "The storm, the storm is coming. Mana is fading, Mana is dying. The storm..." Icy tears began to fall from her eyes, and the howling gale rose again. "The storm..." she repeated, wailing over the winds and pointing towards Altena.

Valda crouched down on hands and knees, trying to protect herself from the raging winds, to follow with her eyes where the Goddess directed. The hurricane gathered, and even as smaller storms spun off to wreak their havoc elsewhere in the world, it centered over Altena, the lights now flickering, the storm blocking her view.

As little as she could see, it was still too much. Valda wanted to wail along with the winds, as the storm poured towards Altena, building to spread its icy coldness ever further. She watched the buildings of her home freeze, then shatter like glass as the storm blew them to pieces. She heard the screams of her people dying like the people of the Ancient City of Light had died, a thousand years before. She watched as her country was covered in snow, obliterating all traces of what had once been the greatest, most powerful nation of the world.

The Arcane Book, the history of her nation, had fallen open before her in the snow. It had opened to the last page, the rain pouring onto its pages. In horror, Valda watched as her own name was washed out, the ink like dripping blood under the darkening sky.

She feared the storm, she feared the rain, the cold, the wind. But worst of all was the darkness. Not the pure darkness of Shade, the Dark Elemental, but something uncontrolled, indescribable, that filled her with a terror she had never felt before.

"I have to make it stop! How do I make it stop?! Tell me!" she screamed at the Goddess. "It's not just Altena anymore, it's the world!"

The Goddess looked down at her, those diamond tears never ceasing to fall. "Sorceress. You, of all, you would if you could... your heart is good... and it was you that should..."

"What do you mean?!" cried Valda.

"Sorceress... stronger than any, but too weak still... the enemy too tough... my fairy gave you what I willed... it was not enough..."

"Light! I want the light!" Valda gasped. Instinctively curling into a ball, the storm buffeted her on all sides as she cowered on the edge of the cliff. "The light!" she cried, but no longer knowing anything except she wanted the darkness to go away. What darkness? What light? She remembered the power of Lumina that had blasted the Dragon Emperor, the multifaceted light of the Mana Stones. Which one was fading? Which darkness was overtaking? She reached a hand out towards Altena, the only light she had ever known, but found her body shaking from the cold.

The Goddess hovered just before her, stretching out a hand. Valda grasped on with all her strength to pull herself to her feet, as once she had grasped onto that trickle of the Goddess's power. She rose, clinging to the Goddess in the chaos around her, the snow whipped into a frenzy to cut her like knives in a thousand places at once. Her hair flailed wildly, whapping her in the face, but the Goddess was all that mattered to her, now.

"Mana is fading, Mana is dying," the Goddess mourned plaintively.

"I know!" shouted Valda, stumbling slightly as another gust nearly knocked her over.

"Ever so ready, you wish to fight?" The Goddess's voice seemed taunting now. "You know the dark, you want the light?"

"Anything," Valda replied, "anything it takes... I'll give anything, even myself..."

Valda suddenly slid then, screaming as one leg slid over the cliff completely. The Goddess's unexpectedly firm grip yanked at her, and Valda found herself failing, one foot dangling in midair as the other desperately tensed to maintain balance on the edge. She turned to the Goddess, in fear and faith.

The kindly face above her was crossed with a bone-deep sadness. "The kingdom you wanted to make... the kingdom he needed to fall... the stronger you get, the more he will take... better had you never learned at all..."

With no warning, the Goddess winked out of existence. Valda heard her last sigh of "Mana is fading..." as the Sorceress fell over the edge of the cliff.

--

As the caves of ice returned to view, Valda found herself on hands and knees, mindless of her Archmages seeing their Queen in this state, mindless of her gown dragging in the dirt, mindless of the tears falling from her eyes as she sobbed harder than she ever had before.

The tears never stopped as two of the three laid the robe of the Grand Divina, palest white with thread of gold, over her shoulders. They would have sensed her choice as soon as she returned, but they could not know what she knew. The tears began to fade as they placed the crown on her head.

The Grand Divina. The holiest of all Altena had to offer. A rank only achieved by Queens, and even then, it was rare. It meant respect for the Goddess, respect for the world. All the power of light, all the power of the Goddess, that Altena could give.

And she knew it would not be enough.

The storm was coming to Altena, the storm was coming to the world.

Through her bleary-eyed vision, she had no idea which Archmage was which. They stood back to give Valda a moment to compose herself, as the new Queen tried to force herself to stand.

But Angela had no such qualms. The little girl, scared to see her mother in such a state, ran to her and looked at Valda with lip quivering. Valda looked back into the eyes of her daughter, and remembered what it was she had to live for.

There was something else. Valda had suspected for a while, but now she knew. It was not the Dragon Emperor, it was something more, and the possibility was unsettling. More than that, she corrected herself. Terrifying.

As she resolutely rose to her feet, she brushed off the ministrations of the others, then reached down to scoop up her daughter, wanting to hang on to her for as long as she could.


	10. History Repeats Itself

**10. HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF**

Queen Valda had been having lunch with her father when the messenger arrived.

Angela, having finished eating, had been freed to play in the other room. Valda knew better than to try and get her six-year-old daughter to sit still for very long anything. Though so far, the Queen was not budging on the magic lessons. It would be four or five years yet before Angela would be able to cast any spells, but both her teachers and her mother could already tell that her potential was enormous. When it was finally unleashed, Valda wanted her to be ready.

"Your Highness," the messenger intoned, "Prince Richard and Sir Loki of Forcena, have arrived at the castle, and await you at your convenience."

Valda and Kayen looked at each other with identical nervous expressions. Why this visit? And even stranger still, why had the Prince of Forcena arrived unannounced? It hadn't been good news the last time he showed up without warning. The similarity was not encouraging.

Valda shot a glance to the doorway of the room in which her daughter played, then at her father, who caught her meaning. "I'll keep her entertained here, daughter, she's probably due for a nap anyway." Valda turned back to the servant.

"Please tell Prince Richard I will greet him in my throne room in an hour's time, and see they have received adequate refreshment. Have rooms prepared for them. In the _other _wing, I think." Best to keep her unexpected guests as far away as possible.

--

It was a calm and composed Queen of Reason who greeted her guests an hour later.

Loki seemed to have changed. He had been always the more silent of the two, but as she had gotten to know him, he had become more friendly and jovial. Now, he seemed more subdued than ever. Despite his insistence that he had chosen the Dark path for good reasons, there definitely seemed to be more of a dark streak to him, now more than ever.

Richard had not changed a bit, however. He still had the dignity that was somehow not marred by his charisma, and he greeted her with a wide smile that might have seemed out of place on any other man of his height and build. Strictly speaking, it was not necessary for him to kneel before her, but he did anyway, taking her hand to kiss it.

"Prince Richard," she greeted him. Better to at least start formally, even if having him near her was bringing back all sorts of memories. "What brings you to Altena after all this time?"

Richard leaned close, and his expression was no longer laughing.

He leaned to whisper close to her ear. "We have news that the Dragon Emperor has returned once again."

Valda only allowed herself the tiniest flick of an eyebrow, but suddenly she wanted to scream inside. When their enemy had escaped them the first time, she had hoped that it would be a long time before they faced him again.

It was all so familiar. This is how so much had began, these two men showing up in Altena to find a dangerous enemy. But so much had changed as well. The ironies did not elude her.

Loki spoke up then. "No one knows what happened last time, Valda. We never told; I can't imagine what would happen if people were to find out the truth. Best keep it between only those who already know. Even if we'd rather pour in with armies, I don't know it would even tip the balance," he said. "But your help was so vital last time, we don't think we can make it without you."

Valda was torn. Loki was right, she knew. But she had much more to leave now. The spells on her country, the rule of the kingdom. And the daughter she could not tell them about.

--

Valda escorted them herself to their ocean-facing rooms in the west wing of the castle. Though the rooms were fine, certainly suitable for royalty, they could not possibly be farther from her own apartments, unless she put them up in the inn in the city.

This did not elude Richard, as she entered his suite with him, having already left Loki. "Valda, I thought for sure you would have missed me more than this." He shut the door behind him, and wrapped his arms around the Queen of Altena in a very familiar way.

Valda was slightly taken aback. Presumptuous man. "I did miss you, Richard," she replied, careful to keep her voice even. Actually, she had thought she had pretty much forgotten about him, but now she was not so sure.

"Well, then," he lowered his voice, "it's a long walk, but I think I might find my way to your apartments later tonight."

Dear Goddess. He wasn't even asking. Think, Valda, think, she told herself.

She shifted into her best seductive voice. It didn't take much, once a man was already looking at her. "But you see, Richard," she practically purred, "that's where I do all of my work. It's _so_ difficult to relax there. I thought that if I came here to see you, it would be that much more enjoyable."

She had him. She could see it in his eyes, now bearing a familiarly suggestive look, but she decided she had better make sure her took her seriously.

For good measure, she pushed against his chest as hard as she could, throwing him backwards onto the bed. Let it never be said that Queen Valda would deny her guest a royal welcome.

--

"So whatever happened to the fairy?" wondered Valda.

A couple days later, and all Valda had decided for sure was that she had to go. Even if they hadn't yet decided where. The rest of her days had been a busy whirl of research, preparation, and fucking Richard to keep him from thinking about anything else. She was worn out.

"I think she's still in there," Loki said, knocking his head. "I'm trying not to think about the implications of that."

"I wonder if all the fairies are like this, or if the others are chattier," mused Richard.

"But it's the Elementals that have been buzzing around," continued Loki. "After our last adventure, they're pretty well attuned to sense the Mana signatures of the Dragon Emperor, but they can't exactly explain what he is doing."

"The logical place to find him would be Dragon's Hole," Richard said, puffing up his chest like he expected a prize for this amazing leap of deduction.

"Great," Valda said, the sarcasm dripping from her voice. "So we think the Dragon Emperor has returned home, repairing his injuries and probably gaining more power to boot. There's good reasons we didn't follow him there before; he is at an advantage on his own turf, even without factoring in all the dragons to be found there, and the mountain itself is a maze where we could be lost for years. We have no plan and little information other than agitated Elementals, and if we try to stride in there right now, we will probably be crushed like bugs. Would that be an accurate assessment?"

The men look abashed. Finally, Loki spoke up. "Any better ideas?"

Valda pondered for a moment. "Perhaps a stop in Pedan? Legends say the Dragon Emperor was once a citizen there, many years ago."

Richard looked doubtful. "Pedan? That backwater jungle village?"

Valda gave him a look. "You forget, Richard, that once upon a time that 'backwater' was the magic center of the world. Parts of the city remain, and I believe much of the old knowledge is still there. Besides, they use some of that magic to keep the town hidden and difficult to find, so we really don't know what is out there anymore."

--

Kayen waited in the doorway as Valda bent over her daughter in the early morning light to give her a quick kiss. "I have to go away for a little while, Angela."

Angela woke up just enough to mumble something noncommittal. She was getting sadly used to not having Valda around much, but the Queen had no idea what to do about it. Besides the ordinary running of a kingdom, it was taking more and more of her time and energy to keep the kingdom warm. And still, the reports from the edges of the kingdom indicated cold was creeping in. How long before the capital itself was vulnerable?

She made one last check on the seals that held the warming spells. Where before she had merely to adjust every week or so, now it was practically a daily endeavor to feed more of Salamando's magic into them, the magic of the seals leaking, melting as Mana no longer held together. Kayen assured her he could maintain them for a brief period of time while she was gone, but after that, Valda did not know what she would do.

With that her departing thought from the castle, Valda joined her two familiar companions outside the castle gates. In her pocket, she grasped the familiar Eternal Rod. She still didn't know how to use it, but somehow, it let her believe everything would be okay.

--

Her insulated carriage bore them through the frozen fields of Altena. Although Valda did not mind the cold, exactly, this was still much more comfortable. And in this season, it was dangerous to travel without. Though the two men had arrived before in summer, now it was the dead of winter, and survival outside for long was limited.

She sat next to Richard, holding herself slightly away from him, their renewed intimacy of the past few days notwithstanding. As for him... she wasn't sure what she felt, exactly... She could remember the way they felt together, so in love, so long ago. But they were both different people then. She knew she had his daughter, she saw him in her every single day, but... somehow when she looked at him, now all she could think of was Angela, growing further away with every mile.

Quiet dragged through the ride. How had they been so cohesive, so many years ago? She couldn't put her finger on it, but something about them _all _had changed.

"So, what is a Grand Divina?" Richard asked, breaking up the silence.

"It's our Light-Light class," Valda replied tersely. How she got there, was not something she wanted to reflect on at the moment.

"I _know_," the Prince of Forcena told the Queen of Altena curtly. "What I'm asking is, what does it mean?"

What did it mean, indeed? Most days, she wished she knew. "You know the way we worship the Goddess is different here. We worship the Mana more than the being. The Grand Divina is a High Priestess, in a way; perhaps you could call her the Priestess of Mana." Even as she said those words, something tore at her, the fear that there might not _be_ Mana left to worship. She wished things could remain as they were, but she hoped that Altena would survive however it could.

Richard listened to her every word, but caught her mood as well, he returning to the silence that permeated the carriage.

Valda forcibly turned her mind away from Richard. That particular line of thought was only sending her to brooding. With the composure that gave the Queen of Reason her regal presence, she coaxed herself to turn her attention to Loki.

She remembered the way he had been. More reserved than his liege lord, but underneath, a willing friend with a ready sense of humor. He just kept more of himself underneath, not terribly unlike Valda herself. Of necessity, or of personality?

"So, did you marry Simone?" she inquired. The grin that suddenly crossed his face was the most positive sign she had seen in days.

He had, as it turned out, and not terribly long after they had parted previously. As he spoke of them, of their life together, she remembered their many private conversations, a great comfort to her, especially when Richard was spinning her head around in circles.

"I just had a daughter," Loki told her proudly. "I had a son, Duran, almost five years ago. He's already trying to pick up my sword and follow in my footsteps. He'll probably be turning five while we're gone..." Loki's voice trailed off.

Valda felt for him, having to leave his children behind that way. If only she could share how she had to leave her daughter.

--

Less than a day, and they found themselves in Elrand. Valda strode towards the port purposefully, eager to accomplish the next objective.

She wrapped her cloak around her with a shiver. Nowhere near as cold as the snowfields, but definitely more chill to the air than she had expected. It had been awhile since she had been to the outlying regions of her country. Where she could only fear the seals were weakening, in castle Altena, here, so far away, she could _feel _the difference. Guilty, she wondered what the people her must be thinking of her. For centuries, the royalty of Altena had been keeping the inhabited regions temperate. Would it be worse for them to think the Queen had abandoned them, or to start to understand the truth?

It was Loki that pulled her out of her ruminations, grabbing her arm as she moved towards the town. Richard stood back; even after having been with her in Altena, he seemed to realize that all was not as it should be, and Valda was not as she was.

"We won't need a ship, Valda," he told her.

"How else are we getting to Pedan?" she replied.

"Just come with us to the beach," the Swordmaster told her. The Grand Divina looked at him quizzically, but acquiesced with a nod. _Better to find out what he was up to_, she thought.

Richard seemed to know what his friend was about, as Valda followed them down to the beach, a strip of cold sand with little to offer now, with winter encroaching. It was abandoned as far as the eye could see. She lifted one eyebrow towards Loki in inquiry.

Loki only gave the smallest of expressions in return. He pulled a flute out of his pack, and blew it with a flair.

Nothing happened for a long moment, until Valda heard the sea rustle from beyond. The waves churned, splattering the trio with sea spray, and when it cleared...

A giant turtle nestled just on the tide's edge.

"Well, Valda, this is where we hop on," Richard joked, forcing the jovial manner that once came naturally.

Valda's look was flat. "You must be kidding."

"No really, Valda, it's quite a bit faster," Loki told her. "Just give it a try."


	11. A Tale of a Flute

**11. A TALE OF A FLUTE**

Altena had the greatest technology in the world, including its only airship. Skipping this to ride a turtle was something Valda had not been prepared to experience.

Still, it was not without its benefits, as she soon discovered. The ride was rather quick, and surprisingly smooth. The water rippled around their transportation, instead of splashing over them. And the shell was nearly the size of her sitting room, allowing ample room to stretch out.

It was probably close to twenty-four hours to Pedan via turtle, whereas Valda would have expected a week-ish by ship, if one could even be obtained to go to that jungle island. A long leg, to be sure, but she amused herself by catching up with her companions.

The story of the flute was an adventure of its own.

"It was maybe a year after we were married. Simone and I were looking to get a little 'alone' time," Loki guffawed, with a look that told Valda exactly what kind of "alone" time he had been seeking. "We left Forcena on a whim, and sailed a small boat to Bucca."

Valda listened in rapt attentiveness.

--

_A small sailboat should have been enough, in the relatively calm waters of the Bucca Ocean. Simone trailed her fingers through the water as Loki worked the sails, the sandy beach of the uninhabited isle visible in the distance. She would take her turn when he tired, never one to shirk, but he was enjoying looking at her far too much._

_He never knew what color to call her hair. In dull light or winter sunshine, some might call it green, but here today, under bright, clear skies, it shone like pale moonlight. The tint was from a Navarrian in the family tree, one owning the blue hair that was only found among the desert people. This bit of her ancestry was lost so far back that it could not be said how much of it was in her. But the color remained, and Loki sometimes thought, some of the spirit as well - a self-reliance and personal honor that often went beyond what Forcenans would consider duty._

_He was enjoy his moment of stolen appreciation when the first tremor rumbled in the distance._

_Simone turned sharply to her husband, fear flickering across her face, but Loki could not comfort her as he grasped the tiller sharply, trying to stabilize the boat in the suddenly rocking seas._

_"The volcano!" Simone cried, now standing to peer towards the island in concern. "It's supposed to be dormant!"_

_"Maybe the Goddess has it in for us!" her husband cried back, before being drowned out by the next rumble from the volcano that now seemed so dangerously close. The calm sea became rough around them, and Loki was suddenly thrown to the bottom of the boat, the sails now flapping wildly. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Simone thrown thankfully in, not out of the boat, and he instinctively reached towards her as he struggled to hands and knees._

_No need. She was already pulling herself up, despite the increasing tremors, as worried for him as he was for her, and doing a better job of it by far. But as she grasped the rail, and saw over the top, a look of horror crossed her face._

_"Loki..." she trailed off, but he jerked himself up and saw for himself._

_Erupting volcanoes produced earthquakes. And earthquakes created... tsunamis._

_He dove for her, as the full force of the wave hit. Their hands met, and he squeezed with all his might, as the water crashed over the decks with the fury of Undine and the roar of the Underworld._

_-- _

_An empty silence, broken only by the occasional call of a seabird, greeted Loki upon awakening._

_He didn't even have time to think of her before she was there, her face leaning above his, hair paler than the sand around him falling into his face, he instinctively brushing it away where it tickled his nose. But everything else about her was more than welcome._

_Pain began to grow, distracting him, and he groaned. "Hold on," she murmured. "I think your arm is broken. I didn't want to heal it while you were unconscious; I think you're going to have to be with me on this one."_

_Loki only nodded. Even though a Knight of Gold was trained in stoicism, this pain was getting too intense for words. And if it was that bad, he knew she was right to wait. With injuries of this gravity, had he been unconscious, the shock of healing might have killed him, his system too weak to comprehend the changes._

_She took hold of his wrist and elbow, and as she pushed the two back into place against each other, he felt it. The magic of Lumina._

_He yelped, involuntarily; among other knights, he would not have cried out, but with only her here, there was nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to prove. A second later, and it was done, though the memory of pain remained to make him skittish, and the sickening sound of bone scraping against bone. He wanted to scream; he wanted to vomit._

_He flexed the arm experimentally. It was as if the break had never been. But he had known that would be the case._

_She sat back, breathing hard, and he turned his attention to her. Even with training, her ability had always been minor, and this would have taken a lot out of her._

_"Wow, good thing you did that class change. You might not have been able to help me otherwise," he said encouragingly._

_She looked at him with resentment, though not meant for him. "And why doesn't Forcena have a name for a woman who's been through it?" she asked, accusingly, as if he was there to speak for all of his gender. "A man is a Knight. If I don't wear armor and carry a sword, then what am I?"_

_"A Priestess?" Loki teased. They had had this discussion before. "Or would you like to be an Amazon?"_

_"I'm serious, Loki," she replied, with a sniff. "Few women in our country even_ want _to try nowadays, like it was something the Goddess created for men."_

_"I don't know, my love," he told her, wrapping his arms, both good and repaired, around her in a very familiar way. "It's Forcena. Maybe it will change, but for now, it is what it is." She relaxed slightly against him. "But for now, we have more important concerns. How are we getting off this island?"_

_They both turned to look towards the water's edge, where shreds of a sail clung to the broken arm of what was once their mast..._

_-- _

_They had been traveling through the forest for only a day and a night, but the monotony made it seem like forever. The two did not know what they were looking for, exactly; food and water, most immediately, but after that, the need to leave the island lurked a distant second._

_Perhaps a message, they had wondered, but how could they be sure it would reach Byzel, the only nearby town on the mainland? And from there, make it back to the people who cared, in Forcena? Even then, the simple problem of how to create and transport such a message eluded them. Loki cursed the romantic notion that had led them to slip away in the night, with no notice of when they might be back._

_Well, they were together, and together they would figure it out. And if not, at least he would be with her on this island for the rest of their lives._

_With that thought, they burst through the trees to find a lazy trickle of freshwater, not a river and barely a brook. Simone dove towards it, gulping the water with almost unquenchable thirst._

_Sated, she looked up with a new awareness of their surroundings. "Let's follow the river to the source," she suggested. "If there is anything to find, it will be along the river."_

_"There's nothing to find," scoffed a demoralized Loki. "Everyone knows Bucca Island is uninhabited."_

_Simone only looked at him, expressionless, and that saying more than any emotion. "Then we'll find the top of the hill," she told him, "and we can decide what to do from there."_

_-- _

_Loki was eating his words the next day when they found the village._

_A poor enough village it was, a collection of ramshackle huts. Some had collapsed in the earthquakes; though, being made of little more than twigs, they were reassembled nearly as easily._

_A floating figure, perhaps three feet tall and eerily cloaked, drifted towards them, suspended at waist level above the ground. Loki's instincts caused him to step before Simone, but as he reached for his sword the figure spoke, in a distinctively human and putatively female voice._

_"So long, since we have seen another human," the voice intoned._

_"Where are we?" Loki demanded._

_"You have found the village of the Dark Priests," the woman spoke. "Or you might call us Enchanters and Enchantresses. Of Wendel, we were once, but that was long ago. Decades, maybe centuries, we do not know."_

Simone stepped forward, hesitantly, pulling down Loki's tensed arm. He lowered it, reluctantly, still feeling on edge.

_The floating figures surrounded them as, side by side, they entered the village. Curiosity seemed the dominant emotion among its inhabitants, and Loki gradually let go of his discomfort, as they grew closer. One beckoned towards a hut, larger than the rest, and they followed._

_A grand totem graced the center of the village. Garish animal heads decorated it, birds, beasts, fish. "What is it?" Loki inquired._

_"The Goddess," the figure intoned. "Or, as we know Her now. Sometimes, in the rest of the world, she is thought of as a woman. Sometimes, she is remembered as a tree. But we have come to understand that she is of all faces and none."_

_-- _

_They stayed in the village for a week, the guests of their cloaked host, who never revealed herself any more than the others._

_But all were more than happy to speak, and Loki and Simone learned. This tribe used a different magic. Strange that they came from the Holy City to do so._

"They believe in the need to know the Underworld as well as the Goddess," Valda interrupted. "A little-known secret, even in Wendel, is that the Temple of Light dabbles in more underworld magic than any other group of magic users."

Loki looked at her, considering. "I guess that would explain a lot. But we didn't know it at the time."

_They could summon creatures, some of this world, and some of the... other. Summoning, and taming, a spawn of the underworld, was no easy task, and even for those who were successful, the summoner began to be tamed in a way, themselves. One lived the length of a human life, but after that, did not die, but became something else altogether. And there were few ways to live beyond, in the ordinary world. Most found a refuge. Some went to the elves, who lived much longer than humans. Some went to Pedan, the ancient city. And others were scattered over the world, like here, on Bucca._

_"But you are not one of us," she told them. "You are not meant to stay here, you belong to the land of the living still."_

_"What about the eruptions?" demanded Simone. Though less intense than the day they had been shipwrecked, rumbles and puffs of smoke from the volcano visible above reminded them of what was imminent. "You won't survive them any better than we would."_

_"If we are not already dead now, I do not think this will be what kills us," she replied. "It is not our place to judge. But for you..." And from somewhere deep in her cloak, she produced a slender flute._

_Loki reached for it questioningly. "I don't have much talent for music."_

_The Enchantress laughed, a silvery sound quite unexpected that filled the confines of the hut. "It won't be necessary," she told him mysteriously. "Just go to the cliffs a short way north of the beach and blow into it, chosen of the Goddess. The Goddess takes care of the rest."_

_"We thank you, Dark Priestess," Simone said politely. "Who are you really?"_

_The figure reached up with one long-sleeved appendage, and with one quick motion, pushed the hood back. The face underneath was blood-red and puffy, resembling nothing so much as a tomato._

_Simone squealed, a girlish sound Loki was surprised to hear from his courageous wife. He was tempted to recoil himself, but something pulled him forward, perhaps the knowledge of a shared bond to the dark with this one-time Wendelian._

_He reached out to touch the tainted skin, and as his fingers made contact, the illusion shattered, to reveal the face of a woman. She had the silvery-white hair common to Wendel, and a face that somehow revealed age without its scars, leaving only dignity, knowledge, and perhaps... regret._

_"Who are you?" Simone now demanded, with overtones of anger at the trickery._

_The woman still levitated, but now only inches above the ground, standing as a human would. "The name no longer matters," she told them quietly. "Once, I was of Wendel, and my husband was the Priest of Light. Our great-grandson now holds the post."_

_"Great-grandson?" Loki asked with doubt. "The current Priest is over fifty. His father would have been your grandson, and he was over eighty when he died. So you must be..."_

_"Very old," the Enchantress agreed. "But the years matter no more than the name. The holiest city in the world dips deepest into the underworld, in the name of the Goddess, and we pay her price. It is not a punishment, but we pay it nevertheless."_

_The crackling of the fire was the only sound that broke the silence, as Loki and Simone attempted to take it all in, the sorrowful, nameless, unknown Dark Priestess meeting their eyes._

_Not a Priestess, thought Loki. An angel, at least for them._

_Finally she spoke. "You must go," she told them. "I will make sure in the morning none of us can be found, so you will have nothing to stay for. Leave now, and let the Goddess lead you on your way."_

_-- _

_Loki and Simone lay close, now only the two of them, their host having departed to wherever she might go. The aloneness now felt somewhat unfamiliar._

_Loki held his wife close to him with his left arm, his right arm free to hold her hand. He was reveling in her closeness, when she shifted upwards to kiss him._

_Their intimacy had always been easy and comfortable, but the kiss felt strange. Trapped in their worries on this, a remote tropical island, somehow they seemed to have forgotten anything but comfort. But now that they had been granted a way out, part of her, at least, remembered._

_And was not taking no for an answer. He had no desire to fight her at first, but as her kisses grew insistent, he pushed her away._

_She propped herself up on his chest, a mixture of hurt and irritation in her eyes._

_"Here, and now?" he asked her. "We could have a child out of this."_

She looked back at him, her hazel eyes blazing. "I don't care," she replied. "You are my husband, and I am your wife. By any estimation, we should not even be alive right now, much less together, and whatever needs to happen, will happen."

_She was right, he knew. She always was, when she spoke that way. He argued no more with her that night._

_-- _

_The next morning, they found themselves setting out towards the coast of the island once again, to a spot not terribly far from where they had first found themselves on this volcanic island. The rumbles continued, reminding them time was not infinite._

_True to the Enchantress's word, they found the village empty that day, the breeze the only other noise, a strange counterpart to the restless earth. Where they had gone, Loki had not known. The night before had all been so strange, that he could have believed he had imagined it all. But he reached into his pocket and his hand closed around the slender silver flute, its cold metal as real as the hilt of the sword he carried on his other side._

_They hurried, following the river's meandering path, crashing through vegetation with all the grace of a bullette in an item shop. A mistake, they realized later, as a swarm of bees rose out of the bushes._

_Not a swarm. Only a handful, but they were gargantuan and slightly humanoid, and were not attacking with stingers. They carried weapons._

_"Monsters," Simone breathed._

Mana didn't seem to want them to leave the island_, Loki thought, whipping out his sword._

_The Swordmaster had dealt with much worse than this, and disposing of these corrupted creatures would be easy enough. The hard part was keeping Simone out of harm's way, as the creatures swooped in from all directions. Loki felt another cut on his arm from the right, as he swung to his left to catch another diving for his unarmed wife._

_He was being pressed hard, and it was a critical moment, four diving for him at once, when he heard her cry. Loki turned to see her crouched down, hand to her chest._

_Madness filled him. If she died... He never could remember what happened to the rest of the bees; he only noticed afterward that they had been sliced into a number of insect parts littering the clearing to rot. All he remembered was Simone, pain in her eyes._

_He pulled her hands from her chest roughly to look at the injury. Vital organs had been missed, and her efforts with Lumina's magic had already begun healing the gash in her skin. But he did not need to be told it was not enough._

_She looked at him plaintively. "There was poison on that weapon," she told him. "I can't do anything about it myself, all I can do it stave it off for the moment."_

_"Are you able to go on?" Loki asked worriedly. They could not stay, but if she did not have the strength to go with him..._

_"I have to." She stood to her feet shakily._

_They proceeded more slowly now, Simone with hand to her chest, Loki doing his best to support her as they clambered down the sandy slope to find the cliffs they had been promised._

_He pulled the flute out, looking at it doubtfully. Such a small thing to have placed all their hopes on. Simone slid it out of his hand to fondle it for a moment, then pulled it to her lips to blow into it._

_The flute's dulcet chimes whistled through the air, but faded to the silence of the island once again. Simone tried again, and again, but the flute's sound seemed ever more mournful, echoing the sudden drop in Loki's mood. Simone threw the flute to the ground in frustration, then suddenly wheezed with the effort of it all._

_Loki picked up the implement, brushing off the sand. He raised it to his own lips, and -_

_For a moment, nothing happened, and Loki had been ready to throw the thing into the ocean. But the waves began to roil and swirl before him, something rising from their depths._

_The creature that appeared... was it really a giant turtle? It seemed to want to help them, crawling part way onto the beach with what seemed to be an expectant look in its eyes._

_Simone pouted. "Why didn't it work for me?"_

_"I can't say exactly," he told her. "I think it's something of the fairy, or the Goddess. I don't think it will work for just anyone."_

_She dropped the subject. There really was no point in arguing, this was their way off the island, their way back home._

--

"The flute wasn't all we got out of it," Loki finally concluded. "It was nine months later, practically to the day, that Duran was born."

"You should tell her the rest," Richard interjected, the first words he had spoken in a couple of hours. "Don't hide it like you think it will go away."

Loki gave the other man a sharp look, and Richard returned a challenging gaze. Valda only shifted from one to the other in confusion.

Loki pulled his eyes away first, and breathed a deep sigh. "She never recovered from the injury, Valda," he finally told her, breaking the silence. "The poison did something, something with her heart that the healers can't fix. That was the last time we were able to go on an adventure together. I don't think she minds, exactly, now that she has children to occupy her, but I can see it debilitates her. It comes and goes. She insisted she was well enough for me to leave her, and her sister is staying with her at our house now. I can only hope, for the sake of our children..." Loki left the thought unfinished.

Valda turned away, to watch the miles of ocean rushing past them, Loki's sad story causing her to quietly descend into her own brooding thoughts.

own brooding thoughts.


	12. Lost, and Found

**12. LOST, AND FOUND**

The "backwater village", as Richard had called it, was hidden in the depths of a thick tropical jungle. Trade to the city was nonexistent, travel routes unmarked and grown over, ships unable to dock anywhere near the city – even if the city wanted them there. Nor would an airship have found a clearing big enough to land in. But the turtle - Booskaboo, Loki had told her its name was - pulled right up to the beach, a small strip of white sand that would barely have accommodated a rowboat.

"Well, Valda, how do we get there?" asked Richard, after some fruitless time searching for an obvious path through the jungle.

Valda frowned, furrowing her brow in concentration. "I'm working on it. There's some ancient magic at work here." She had been trying to make heads or tails of it for hours now; she doubted that before she had raised to Grand Divina, she could have made even begun to comprehend it. The pattern was ordered, but so complex that it made her own spells feel clumsy and unsophisticated. There were all eight elements to be sure, but trying to pick out any one was like trying to untangle a ball of yarn the size of a house.

She contemplated the problem for several minutes, irritation growing and distraction her no matter how hard she tried to push it down. Frustrated, she turned to her companions to explain the paradigm. Her voice cracked slightly, admitting it was stretching her abilities. Why was she becoming so upset at finding a puzzle she could not solve?

The men did not berate or push her, only looking at her in concern as she swallowed the lump in her throat. The Queen of Reason did not enjoy feeling like a failure.

Richard put one hand gently on her arm. "A ball of yarn, you say?" he told her slowly. "That sounds much harder than anything I could work with, but you're much better at it. Maybe if you picked a thread, and followed it?"

The way those soft brown eyes were on her now, she could not say no. She lifted her head, and nodded.

One thread. Instead of trying to picture the thing as a whole, she looked for where it was different, and slowly the elements resolved themselves to her mind. She was tempted to reach for Light, her greatest strength now, but suddenly chose Ice instead. She was of the snowfields; ice was part of who she was.

Valda couldn't explain exactly how she did it, but as she reached, the threads of ice latched on and held. Now she could picture the patterns of water by themselves; and more importantly, tell where they were going. They pulled her, now slightly to the southwest.

"This way," she announced, and Richard squeezed her arm before letting it drop. The path only revealed itself a few yards at a time to her, but once it did, it was as clear as water.

--

Everything in these woods was overgrown, she realized, as they trudged through them, following the path of the river. The bugs, the lizards, the birds who dove for them with mindless rage for those invading their territory.

The clincher was when a giant _rabite_, of all things, _whumped _to the ground before her from somewhere above in the trees.

Valda screamed like a girl, for once, at this giant, slavering version of the ordinarily innocuous creatures. It hopped towards her, biting with teeth that were now big enough to do some real damage.

She recovered herself to send some shards of ice its way, irritating it enough to stop it for a second, just enough time for Loki's sword to neatly skewer it. Snapping jaws now gurgled the last of the creature's life. It really was quite grotesque when she could look at it eye-to-eye.

"Now _that's _a monster," he said, wiping the blood off on the great rabite's bluish-gray fur. "When foul Mana corrupts even _rabites_, for Goddess's sake..."

"It can't be good," Valda finished for him, shuddering.

--

The choice of following the water element had an unexpected consequence. The path led straight into the river.

They must have been close to the source of the stream, luckily, so it was not so terribly deep, stopping inches short of Valda's hips. Nor was the tropical river cold. But it did make for some slow going, and they were too fearful of losing the trail to try following the river bank.

Eventually, gratefully, Valda felt the Mana shift to lead them out onto the bank, slogging through the grass in their waterlogged clothing. The men could do little with wet breeches, but Valda tried fruitlessly to squeeze the water out of the skirts of her gown. With night descending and a chill filling the air, she called a halt to start a blazing fire with Salamando's magic. Besides drying their uncomfortable garments, it seemed to keep the overzealous bugs of the forest away.

Morning rewarded them as, with now-dry and presentable garments, by noon they reached the city of Pedan.

Valda was no expert on architecture, but she could see the same construction, and many of the same details, that she had seen in the ruins of the Ancient City of Light. The golden bricks, the dwelling piled on top of one another... all eerily familiar, giving that feeling of returning to an ancient world.

But there was one thing Pedan had, that the other had not. People.

They were _everywhere_, in fact, roaming through the activities of daily life like every other town in this world. With one substantial difference. From every single one of them, except the very youngest, she could sense magic ability, some quite powerful.

They gave little notice of the three foreigners strolling into the gates of their city. Valda thought that might have a lot to do with her. Only a fellow magic user would be able to find their way to this city of wizards; anyone able to work through their puzzles would have a reason to be there.

Not that she had any idea what that reason would be. They were here looking for something that would give them an advantage over the Dragon Emperor, and maybe this time he would be done for good. But they knew so little of the answers, that they barely knew the questions to ask, leaving them looking like goggle-eyed magic-using tourists in the central square.

"We could stock up on some supplies," Loki suggested. "There's some shops here. Maybe they have something special."

"Coming, Valda?" asked Richard.

Valda had been staring in wide-eyed fascination as soon as they had entered. Not just at the city itself, though it was mind-boggling to behold a city of this splendor, keeping itself secreted away from the rest of the world. But the magic... It wasn't exactly the same as seeing a Mana Stone, but the feeling was close.

"Go ahead," she told the men, breathing in the Mana around her. "I think there's somewhere else I'd like to go." Somewhere, in this town, were the wielders of these enormous forces, far more power than she could dream of touching. And she was determined to find them.

She strode forward, purposefully, as if pulled by an unseen force, only to be stopped by a hand on her arm. She turned to look at Richard.

"Be careful, Valda," he told her, worry marring his features. "I can feel all the Mana in the city, too. You never know what might happen. Come back in an hour, or I'm coming to find you."

Valda nodded, and continued forward as he let her arm slip from his grasp.

--

Valda could have sworn the temple looked like a small, squat building from the outside, as she stepped through on the trail she was following. But inside she found herself walking down a hallway that stretched as far as the eye could see.

Mana filled the space around her. She had thought she had felt it strongly when she had been to Wendel, before Angela's birth, but this was humbling in its intensity. It quivered, shivered, pulsated, until it seemed her own heart was beating right along with it.

Yet she was not afraid. Dark and light intermingled, shadows cast by the candles flickering against the walls, the simple duality of the opposing elements comforting her in the stony silence. If only it did not remind herself of nothing so much as a tomb. But whose?

The light at the end grew slowly brighter, resolving itself into a grand room lit by candles everywhere. Before her, eight wizards, four men and four women, stood arranged in a semicircle, all dressed in identical robes of some multicolored fabric that changed color every time it moved in the slightest. At first glance she believed the wizards to be old, but upon second glance she realized there was an aged wisdom in the eyes of all that did not match their varying chronological ages. Behind them stood a large, ancient tablet, words in an unknown language etched across its surface, softly glowing but with Mana, not of light, seeming to want to say something…

And one more thing, her active mind noted as she pondered the figures before her. Every single one of them had violet hair, from palest lilac to evening indigo. The color belonged to the Altenans, she thought, one hand involuntarily reaching below her ear to tug at her own waist-length amethyst mane. They might be her ancient, distant cousins, all of them, and with this realization, she straightened, a bit of her fear diminishing, to gaze each in the eye in turn, patiently waiting to see who might speak first.

"Come to us, Grand Divina," the woman on the far left solemnly intoned. Valda took a few steps forward and suddenly felt the sudden urge to stop, realizing as she did that she was now equally far from each of these priests.

She suddenly felt thoroughly surrounded. "Why am I here?" she demanded of the congregation before her.

The man on the far right spoke. "Come to us, Grand Divina, if you wish to know the secret of Mana."

_The secret of Mana? _Valda wondered. _What was there to know? _If there was anything to know, it would be known here, where the use of Mana had begun, so many centuries ago.

She reached out, not with her hand, but with her heart and mind, with trepidation. Ever so slowly... just a little further... and then...

It snapped clearly into focus then. Images, thoughts, feelings flooded her brain, filled her soul. It was too much, flowing all at once, and without thinking, she recoiled back. As the door slammed shut, she cursed herself. She prodded gently, but it was already gone, and she could not figure out how to make it open again.

Some Valda remembered though, and she clung to it with a desperate certainty. "The Goddess..."

"Yes," a second woman spoke. "The Goddess."

"The Goddess..." Valda tried to remember, to force herself to hold onto the memory, but it was slipping away like sand through her fingers. There had been something in there, about the Goddess, about the fading of Mana... something that she hadn't thought possible... it was too important to forget...

"Queen of Altena," the second man spoke. "You were of us, once. You might have been with us today."

Valda raised her chin in pride. She spoke from what she knew, but somehow, deep within, she felt as if her ancestors spoke too. "You know why we left," she told them. "You let it all fall apart, letting Mana fall into chaos without the Ancient City of Light to balance you. Mana ran wild, disordered, and you even dabbled into the powers of the Underworld. You turned your back on the Goddess, and we left to find something simple, pure, to touch the elements on their own."

"And that you did," the third woman replied. "But you lost something, too. You now know only water, ice, structure, order. Even chaos, the opposite of Mana, is in its own way part of the whole. Order is only effective if there is some chaos to be ordered. Of your kind, only the Black Magus can truly face this truth. That's why they have the most power of all."

"If they can survive it," Valda replied sharply.

The third man spoke. "It's no use," he said. "She cannot remember the secret of Mana."

"She's been touched," the woman in the center intoned harshly, this one's face clearly creased with the lines of simple age. Valda flinched involuntarily from the vicious tone, as if slapped. "She's been tainted." A knot formed in Valda's stomach. She didn't know what this ancient sage spoke of, but it chilled her to the bone. "This one should have shone like a beacon for the Goddess's messenger, but now the messenger will never find her."

"I chose the light!" Valda cried, and suddenly she was back on a cliff in a storm, tears freezing on her windburned cheeks. The feelings had been nothing she had ever experienced before, not even fighting the Dragon Emperor itself could compare to that desperate fear for something she could not understand nor stop.

The woman turned to look at her with undisguised hate on her withered face. "You chose, but sometimes choosing is not our own."

The last man of the circle, perhaps the eldest of all, had remained silent but now spoke, his voice a quiet whisper that somehow seemed louder than any who had spoken before. "Be still," he intoned, with a peaceful reverence, towards the ferociously angry crone. "It is not fate that determines who will be found by the messenger of the Goddess. There is no chosen one. One might have hoped that this one would be found, but failing that, it will be another, and we can do no less than hope that chance will favor us and find someone worthy."

He turned to her, and his eyes seemed to know her soul. "We have done all we can for you, Grand Divina. Leave now. I fear your fate is sealed," he concluded with an ominous finality. His last words echoed in her head as Valda turned and ran.

--

Valda fled the temple, leaning against the stairs of another house to catch her breath. She was overwhelmed by what she had seen, what she had experienced, and even more frightened by the things she could not remember. Light and Dark, the Goddess and her messengers, fate and chance…

"You look like could you some help."

Valda jumped at the voice on the stairs above her, but the woman she whirled to face was just an ordinary woman, nondescript and kindly, not one of those she had encountered in the temple.

"Why don't you come in for some tea," the woman suggested. Valda, suddenly slumping against the railing in exhaustion, could only nod, and pulled herself up the stairs and out of the sun to enter a small, but comfortable domicile.

A young man brought her a cup of some steaming tropical infusion, which Valda sipped gratefully, her head clearing as she did so, her racing heartbeat returning to normal. She took in her surroundings, one large room around which books were scattered liberally.

"What are all the books about?" she inquired of her host.

"My son and I are trying to figure out the location of the Mana Stone of Darkness."

The Stone of Darkness. The legends surrounding the shadowy Mana Stone were older even than history, old enough that no one except perhaps the Elementals themselves knew the truth of it. That Stone had broken once, the tale ran, and the God-Beast inside wreaked havoc on the world before the ancient warriors and mages were able to seal it back.

The woman nodded as Valda repeated what she already knew. "Indeed. Those were the great magicians of ancient Pedan, so long ago that even here much of the story has been lost. But I feel... I think... Mana is changing, and perhaps the Stone will be returning before too long... If we can figure out where, we can leave some record of our findings before it is too late. The fate of the people of Pedan is uncertain, we have hidden for so long but how long before we are found..."

That tickled something in the back of Valda's head. "Fate... do you think that is all there is for a person?"

The old woman looked at her. "We have a saying here in Pedan. Ninety-nine percent of a person's life is fate - the other one percent is your hope guiding you. What do you hope for?"

Valda pondered for a moment. She hoped for a great many things. She hoped for her country, she hoped for her people, she hoped for the world. But shamefully, above even these things, she hoped for her daughter. That was what guided her in so many ways now, wanting Altena to be safe so it would be there for her daughter to lead.

"I hope for a great many things," she finally said. "But I don't know how to make them happen. I use all my power, and it's not enough."

"You have all you need, to go as far as your fate will let you. You just need to learn how to use it. I can show you some things you do not know."

Valda leaned forward in interest.

"Your strength is in light, I can tell," the woman began. "Order. Structure. These are the things you know. Each element powerful, but limited in its solitude. Do you know how to mix the elements?"

"I do," Valda replied, proudly. She had been developing her talents in that area for quite some time, and it wasn't so easy to do without the spell descending into a chaos she was not equipped to control. Few others in Altena could even come close to her in this regard.

"How many elements?"

"Two or three, sometimes even four."

"How about all eight?"

That stopped Valda cold. Darker classes did things like that, but the results often weren't pretty. Turbulent, seething masses of Mana struggled to free themselves from the caster's control, and it took all the wizard's strength to make it do what she intended before it turned on her. It was something of a job hazard of those who dared try it.

When she voiced her concerns, the woman shook her head. "No. That is the Dark way of doing so. You will never be able to do it that way, you have already lost that path. What you need to learn is the way to do it using your talents, now."

"Tell me," Valda asked, pleadingly, wanting it so badly she could almost reach out and touch it. "What is it you know?"

The woman looked at her, speculating. "This type of magic is almost the power of the Goddess herself. She was the one who first brought all the elements into order, after all. It is not easy, but I think you have the heart, and the intelligence to learn."

"There are two ways to do it. One is to blend all eight into each other, equally, keeping each maintained in opposition to its counterelement. Then together - " The circle she began forming was small, barely there at all, but there it was, what she had not thought possible. All eight elements, melting together, the colors shimmering brilliantly.

"Like a rainbow," Valda breathed.

"More than a rainbow, which is something which just _is_. While it may look peaceful, this churns inside with an energy of its own, and it is a struggle to keep them all perfectly balanced, before it all falls to ashes. We call this Rainbow Dust."

"It's like the Mana Stones," Valda noted, remembering the shimmering colors that filled every Stone she had ever seen. Was this the very nature of the Goddess? Something tickled her memory, and abruptly she recalled that she _had _used something not terribly unlike this, to send the Dragon Emperor running back to his hole. But she had created it wrapped around Light, that time, to give the final push, with the powers of Lumina and the Fairy running through her. She hadn't been able to reproduce anything like it since.

"It is," agreed the woman. "The sealing magic of the Stones is formed like this, as are other ancient and powerful spells. Altena once knew the secret of Rainbow Dust, but perhaps it has been forgotten. If you found your way here, you have already discovered the spells that keep Pedan locked away from the rest of the world. You could open the gate to the Holyland itself, with enough of this magic. The drawback is, that to have all eight together in harmony, you lose some of the strength of each one."

"The second way to combine the elements," she continued, "is to follow one with its opposite, right behind the other."

"That's magician's play," Valda scoffed slightly. "Anyone with enough practice can rapidly cast."

"We're not talking about two separate spells," she was chided. "They are formed together, yet kept separate so as to not destroy each other - like this."

Abruptly, a fire broke out in the center of the table, and before Valda could even cry out, water poured over to quench it. Valda blinked. She could not figure out where one spell ended and the next began.

"This is a Double Spell."

"That's impossible," she breathed. But if it could be done... It would be virtually impossible to defend against both opposites at once. It would attack any weakness.

"Not at all, though very difficult. It can be done with any pair, save dark and light. This is because by the time one gets to a level to use this, one already has chosen one over the other. Nor can a gray path use this; you must respect the separation. If you are truly a Grand Divina, and have enough raw strength, you will be able to use it."

"What about a Black Magus? Can they use this?" Valda had never understood how the dark-dark mages wielded Mana, and this seemed a good chance to find out 

"In a sense, but it is not the same," she was told. "From a Magus, it gains a power all its own. You have already forgotten what I told you earlier. Your strength is order and structure. Use it wisely."

--

The Grand Divina meandered through the city of Pedan, seeing little as she lost herself in her own thoughts, trying to process everything she had seen to find some small shred of hope. It was getting harder to find. She remembered something from years ago, about grabbing the Goddess's power like a branch in a storm. She wished she did not feel so terribly the same now.

"_Valda_!" A shout brought her out of her reverie, and the sound of running footsteps. Before recognition of the voice had even fully set in, Richard had grabbed her shoulders and turned her forcefully to face him.

"Where have you _been_?!" he demanded, rage overtaking his ordinarily joking expression. "We've been looking for you for _hours_! The sun is almost going down! You could have been _anywhere_, you could have wandered out into the jungle, you could be in one of these buildings..."

Valda bore the tirade, incredulously, as Richard screamed at her, his face going positively blood red, in the middle of the main street of Pedan. The citizenry stopped to stare, gawking at the foreigner causing a scene, before shuffling on to mind their own business. Pedan had enough problems of its own to bother with them, apparently.

It was Loki, coming up behind Richard to lay a hand on his arm, that finally ended the outburst. At the older man's grip, the Prince of Forcena let his anger go, his expression descending into a weariness that the Queen of Altena had never seen on the man whom she had once known all too well. Even years ago, pursuing the Dragon Emperor across the world, part of them had told themselves that it was all a game. But there was something here in this city, or perhaps something within themselves, that knew it was much more.

A long silence hung between the old friends, Valda looking quizzically between the two others, Richard hanging his head with eyes downcast, Loki bearing a grim expression that never wavered. There they stood, their solemn mood holding them together like a cage.

Richard finally was the first to speak. "I'm sorry," he mumbled towards the ground. Valda leaned in to squeeze his hand amiably.

Loki filled in the blanks. "Well, I suspect you probably had the strangest experience of us all in this town, Valda," he told her. "If we can have weird experiences here, with only a cursory knowledge of magic, who knows what you have found here."

"What happened to you?"

"We hadn't planned on anything special, just went to the shop to get some supplies and check out their armor. We bought a few things, but nothing special or magical, just some better stuff to help us out," Richard spoke up, gradually recovering himself. He glanced at Loki, and something seemed to pass between them.

"And?" Valda prodded.

Loki sighed. "It's just a little something, I don't know if it even means anything, or if it's just the stress getting to us. I was turning to leave, when suddenly I heard my son's voice, clear as if he was right there in the room, begging me not to go to Dragon's Hole. I might have let that slide, but I looked at Richard, and he had this funny expression on his face."

"I heard it too," Richard admitted. "I don't know why, or how, but there it was, but we couldn't see anything."

Valda was pensive for a moment, trying to figure out what it all meant, but Richard broke her concentration. "So, where did you go?"

Briefly, she sketched out her experience in the temple, and her refuge in the house of the scholars. "I don't like it here," she finally admitted, feeling childish for allowing such a simplistic emotion to drive her.

The men listened intently, however, nodding their agreement. "This place creeps me out," Loki added.

"Perhaps we could find a place to stay outside?" Richard suggested. As much as Valda disliked camping, at this point in time she would do just about anything to get away from Pedan and its ancient memories.

--

Valda tossed and turned, her worries keeping her awake. She stared at the sky above, sleep eluding her.

Somehow, lost in her thoughts, she had not heard Richard sneak up on her, and suddenly he was leaning over her. "Can't sleep?" he whispered.

"No," she murmured back, looking at the man who seemed almost a stranger, but who once had been so much more.

"Let's get up and go for a walk," Richard urged, taking her hand and tugging it plaintively the same way Angela sometimes did. A twinge of her heart reminded her this was the father of her daughter, and even as she instinctively pulled away, the memory made her turn to look him in the eyes. They were doubtful, uncertain.

"Please," he asked her, his desire clear for once. Somehow, she could not say no; but neither could she bring herself to say yes, nodding as he slipped a hand under the small of her back to help her up. Dressed only in her flowing silk undergarment, she slipped out with him into the humid tropical sky.

For a long while they remained in silence, ambling directionless, but somehow found themselves climbing upwards, towards the top of the hills overlooking Pedan. As they gazed down upon the ancient city come again, it seemed to shimmer, waver out of existence, not entirely like what was between the two of them themselves.

Richard wrapped his arms around her, his embrace comfortingly familiar, and Valda leaned back in what she believed was acceptance.

He was not convinced. "You're stiff," he told her.

"No, I'm not," she denied.

He turned her to face him. "Yes, you are," he told her, with all the presence and arrogance she had ever remembered from him. "And you have been for quite some time. How many times were you in my bed before we left Altena?" She couldn't believe he was speaking to her like this. "Any time I wanted you, all I had to do was snap my fingers to get you to take off your clothes. I wanted you there with me more than anything, but every time I had you, it was something missing, something that I wanted to be there all over again."

Valda's tone was sharp. "You seemed happy enough to take."

"You seemed more than willing to give," he replied, turning her face to his with a raw anger. "And every time, it was like you just had another job to do. It must be so easy for you, to just take another man, another consort for the Queen of Reason, with no further thought. If I had only known that was all I ever was to you -"

"That's not true!" she barked back, rage suddenly filling her as well. "You must know I wanted you more than anything, wanted you with my whole heart! I remember it all, remember what it felt like, having you close, closer than anything! I remember crying out how much I loved you, never wanting to let you go..." And with the memory, tears came to her eyes as before, wishing things could be the way they once were. She fought the urge to hide her head in his shoulder, turning away to the black night beyond, fearing she had already said too much.

Nevertheless, she found herself with little resistance as he leaned in close. "Why, Valda, why?" he inquired, anger still fluid within him, but sadness overtaking it from behind. "Why won't you let me get close to you, as we once were? What has changed?"

"What do you want from me?" she cried into the stillness of the night.

"Everything," he told her, and said the rest with his touch.

She could not say more, any more than she dared look back in his eyes, but her emotions drained the strength out of her body, and as his arms began to caress her softly, sliding from waist down her legs in a tragically familiar stroke, she did not resist. When he leaned on her shoulder to nuzzle her neck, then kiss it with those feathery teasing kisses she knew all too well, she did not fight. When she felt his fingers tangling in her long purple hair, to twirl through it and delve in once again, she gave in, turning her body ever so slightly towards him, her eyes downcast still. As he turned her further, she raised her head to his, to see a familiar look in his eyes. No anger now, nothing but what she had seen once, so long ago, as he stammered "I love you," so gently, so awkwardly, bringing up memories of a night in Forcena, so long ago.

They said nothing more. There was no point. Past was past, and what would be today, would be. She slid her own arms around his neck to peer back at him expectantly, and waited to see what he would do next.

He only looked back at her, a sense of worry creasing his features, a fear of defeat.

"I want us to make love," he finally spoke. "Not just me. Both of us. You and I, the way you once wanted to. I can't let myself believe you've forgotten completely. If you remember anything of then... show me, before I lose my memories of you completely..." And he leaned back, his grip loosening on her, but his gaze never changing.

As his arms loosened on her, two sides of her fought within, but she already knew which had won. She stretched over him and lowered her body to lie next to his, lost in the moment of nothing but this man next to her.

Their eyes met, yet he waited, and Valda could wait no more. She leaned in to kiss him, and he met her lips, with every kiss the two drawing closer with a passion they had not felt in Altena. They lay that way for long moments, reveling in the closeness.

His hand went to the neckline of her dress, inquisitive yet determined. She breathed deeply as it slipped off her shoulder.

"I want to love you," he breathed, "like we never have before. I want to feel you close to me, heart and soul, now, if not ever again."

She could not speak, only nodding before she pulled him to her once again. As she wrapped her body around his, high on the mountaintop, all that was in her head was Richard, only Richard, and the way they felt in this moment.


	13. Where Do Demons Come From?

**13. WHERE DO DEMONS COME FROM?**

Loki was always more perceptive than she gave him credit for, Valda mused. The blanket that had been thrown over her and Richard sometime during the night must have been his work. But he said nothing as they filtered back into the campsite, merely cooking breakfast with an efficient nonchalance while Valda shivered in the breaking sunlight. Not cold, exactly, but chilly nonetheless.

Richard was shy that morning, and for once Valda was shy right along with him. Everything that had passed between them the night before, seemed to pale in the light of day, as they turned towards the next objective.

Valda gave a more detailed description of her impromptu magic lessons the day before, quivering with the excitement of trying them out. Richard and Loki, it seemed, had not been idle either, and had found some of the information they needed about the Dragon Emperor.

" Apparently he was a part of a group that called themselves the 'Dragon Tribe'. They tried all kinds of uses of magic, including turning themselves into dragons. Some succeeded, but none could turn back, except the Dragon Emperor himself. The dragons in Dragon's Hole are some of those Dragon Tribe members. Some of the Pedanen swore they could follow his movements, through whatever weird connection they have with him, and they were absolutely certain he has returned home," Richard finished.

"So, Dragon's Hole?" she inquired. "I should have known. I had hoped we could have avoided it."

"Well, it was probably too much to hope for, that he would not make it back, after you beat the shit out of him last time," Loki told her. "But we talked to many people, and they were all in agreement. They had almost this weird sort of respect for him, saying he was the strongest and smartest of them all."

"He was one of them, once," Valda reasoned.

"And he has that same creepy magic power," Richard replied, shaking off their odd experiences from yesterday. "Who even knows what spells he has learned?"

"That's why we're going to Dragon's Hole to stop him," Loki answered his friend. Was it Valda's imagination, or was there a flinch across Loki's face as he said it?

She peered outward. From where they had spent the night, near the top of a great waterfall, she could see the island in all directions. "Funny, there seems to be a well-defined trail out of here. I swear that was not here last night."

"Are they asking us to leave?" wondered Loki.

"Well, they would likely make it easy for us. They're only interested in keeping people _out_, not _in_," Valda replied. "And it's one less problem that has to be solved. I think it leads straight down to the beach, and then tomorrow morning we can call that turtle of yours."

--

Sure enough, a wide path meandered through the trees, leading them further away from the ancient city of Pedan. Valda did not think she would be back. Even with all their knowledge of magic... it felt as if something was not quite right. _She _didn't feel right there, and she recalled the history of the darkness that had infected its people. Perhaps there was no more safe magic to find there.

Night was falling, and she only hoped they were near the coast, her view now once again obscured by vegetation. Scouring the path up ahead, she saw both men suddenly put their swords up. She peered past them. "What do you see?"

"Valda, stay behind," Richard told her determinedly. "I don't know how, or why, but.. I think that's a pack of Beastmen ahead of us."

With growls, the beastmen, knowing they were spotted, fell upon them.

Valda jumped behind a tree, recalling from a decade ago the ferocity with which the wolf-men fought. Six of them now surrounded the fighters, and trapped in the middle of a circle of angry werewolves, they were at a definite disadvantage.

Loki glared at them with the grim anger that she had come to recognize as his battle expression. He had a certain deadly grace, as he paused barely a moment to fill his saber with Luna's power before striking out, facing four opponents with a master's skill. There was no hope of avoiding all the blows from the beastmen, but as his sword deftly sliced here and there into a leg or an arm, the shrieking growls she heard told her he was causing more than just pain, as his moon-enchanted saber pulled their life into his own.

Richard struck with precision; even with Loki taking on the brunt of the fight, he was heavily on the defensive. He held his shield awkwardly, it being designed to defend from blows from other weapons, not from hand-to-hand combat. She could have sworn she heard one of the beastmen laugh as he tried to hold it against a punch, the brute strength of the beastman slamming it backwards against his body, making him wheeze with sudden loss of breath.

In frustration, he threw his shield to the ground, it barely clanging against the soft jungle earth. Freed of his burden, he swiped quicker now, but his speed and skill were nothing on Loki's.

They were toying with Richard, she realized now. He had no chance against their skills. Tiring of their game, one grabbed him by the waist, lifting him upwards as if to smash him on the ground.

"_No_!" Valda cried instinctively. Flashing back to what the old mage of Pedan had taught her only the day before, she tossed fireballs followed by ice at the unsuspecting Beastmen attacking Richard.

The effect was... sloppy. Her opponents should have first burned, then froze, but all she succeeded in doing was putting out the fire that had barely singed their fur. Nevertheless, she succeeded in annoying them, the one merely dropping Richard to the ground with a thud instead of a slam, then stepping over the battered Prince of Forcena to stare at this new irritation.

"Witch!" he growled.

"You wish you could do what I can!" She could sense no magic at all from these two. But the taunting only riled them up, and as one, they charged towards her.

Valda reacted without thinking. No more experimental magic, with two angry werewolves racing towards her; she reached immediately for Light, for her strength.

The powerful beams of Lumina's magic rained down on them, knocking them clean off their feet in a very satisfying way. They groaned.

A third party was groaning as well. Richard pulled himself to his feet to survey the situation, still slightly shaky. "Well met, Valda - as always."

Loki, meanwhile, had left the other four incapacitated for the moment, injuries not allowing them to rise from the ground. He walked over silently to the two others.

"Beastman," Richard asked the one who had handled him like a child, going to one knee to lean over him. "What are you doing here, so far from home? I signed a treaty with your king."

The Beastman spat, then glared at the Forcenan. "Beast King is an idiot. He thinks the Beastmen can become part of the human world. We will never be able to coexist with humans."

"So you are here on your own, then," Valda filled in, stepping lightly around his fallen comrade to stand looking over Richard's left shoulder. She felt sorrow for these alienated members of their race.

"We are Death Hands. Your kind can call us the Wolf Devils, because that is what we are, and that is what you will soon know." He coughed, his chest straining with the effort, and blood came out of his lungs. Valda's stomach lurched at the sight.

"Heal them, Richard," she said suddenly, turning away.

"What?!" he replied.

"Heal them. Please," she added. "They'll die from these injuries otherwise, out here in the middle of nowhere. This is not the quarrel we have today."

Richard looked up at her, doubtful, but agreement slowly crossed his face. He turned back to his attacker.

"I can fix this," he told the beastman, "but you will first promise to leave us unharmed. The problems of the Beast Kingdom have nothing to do with us right now, and we have other, more important things to attend to."

The Death Hand regarded the Lord with thinly veiled hate, but there was no choice but to make peace with his enemy. "Promise," he finally spat out.

It took the better part of an hour, for Richard to help all six, especially with the extent of injuries Loki and Valda had inflicted, and Richard himself looked rather pale and wan by the time it was done. It was more healing than he had done in a good long while. Valda busied herself contemplating the irony of fighting, only to heal it all again afterward. Loki's expression was carefully neutral. What he thought of aiding their fallen enemies, she could not begin to guess.

Finally, all six were on their feet. The briefest of nods conceded their debt to the humans, and they were off, bounding into the jungle once again.

--

The island of the glass desert on which the mountain called Dragon's Hole resided was notoriously inaccessible. As much as Valda wished to keep the secrets of Altenan airship technology within the country, she would have broken the silence for this endeavor. The problem was, the rough terrain would not even allow an airship landing. Fortunately, the men seemed optimistic that they could find an alternative landing spot with the strange giant turtle that had gotten them to Pedan.

And truly an alternative landing spot it was. The craggy shoreline of the island offered little welcome for the weary travelers; hours of searching still left them clambering over boulders, slippery with sea slime, to enter the forbidding territory. Valda pulled herself up the top of the hillside with a great heave and collapsed, breathing heavily.

Richard was right behind her, looking not much better. As Valda righted herself into a sitting position, she gazed down at the crashing waves, now far below them.

"I have an unpleasant feeling that was the easy part," she told the men beside her.

Richard, always the most light-hearted of the three old friends, was himself terse as he looked towards the road ahead. The silvery soil that supported no life reflected the fading light of day brilliantly, but beyond, she could already see the red-stone peak she had been trying not to think about.

Loki started to busy himself setting out their supplies, as the cold wind of night began to rise up over the ocean, perhaps to do something to break up the somber moment.

Days passed in that desolate landscape, the trio clambering over the sparkling dunes and shimmering cliffs. Trapped in the quiet, Valda found she and Richard sometimes talked like strangers, despite it all. Was that how it had always been between them, she wondered? Like the glass desert itself, moments of incredible intensity, followed by miles of space?

Part of her wished she had never gotten close to him at all. She thought she could fall in love with him and walk away, back to where she needed to be. But she would never be free, she realized. That night in the hills of Pedan had taught her the truth. He was always going to have a part of her, something she did not realize was missing until he got close to her once again, and then that part of her reached all over again. And she, quite literally, would always have a part of him.

It was enormously refreshing when they started to bicker.

"Don't take so much of the rations! We don't know how long we we're going to be here!" she found herself shouting at him.

"We've got plenty! Who cares?! We could die tomorrow, let's have a proper meal tonight!" Richard barked right back.

Valda fumed. "Are you stupid? Don't you think of anything but what's right in front of you?!"

"Do you have to plan out everything to the last second? You really are the ice queen, you're as rigid as ice!" Richard yelled back at the agitated Grand Divina.

"We'll be eating dragon before the week is out!"

"I hear dragon is quite tasty with the right seasonings."

Both their heads swiveled together to regard Loki, who now wore a wry smile as he tended the fire.

A moment later, Richard started laughing, his good nature coming through once again.

"What's so funny?" asked a miffed Valda. Rigid, indeed.

"Us, Valda," he chuckled. "You and I. We're arguing over strips of dried rabite, when the fate of the world could be at stake. We are absolutely ridiculous." And he threw his arms around her in a tight, friendly hug.

Valda tried desperately to maintain her regal coolness, but the first giggle crept in. She pushed it away, and another took its place.

Soon enough she was laughing right along with him.

--

The Glass Desert had something of the Gemstone Valley's beauty in it, Valda thought, as they began to climb uphill through rocky terrain. The soil sparkled brilliantly, the beautiful refractions of light charming her and serving to distract her from what really was turning into sheer monotony.

Clambering up yet another rocky rise, she wished dearly that there was some sort of straight and direct route to the top. If there was, they couldn't get to it.

She had thought this deadly desert would be free of distractions, with no life to be seen, but as time went on, she began to feel eyes on her. She desperately wanted to believe that it was imagination working overtime, until, one evening, she saw it, red eyes glowing with an otherwordly light. This was nothing of Mana, corrupt or otherwise.

"A demon," she whispered, her barely audible voice feeling like a shout.

"I saw it too," Loki affirmed. "I'd keep my sword handy, Richard."

What on the Goddess's earth was a _demon _doing here? This was no ordinary monster. These came from the underworld itself, if they were summoned; or worse still, if Mana had weakened enough, they could cross over on their own. She never thought she'd see the day when she would fervently wish that the Dragon Emperor _could _summon demons.

Those beady eyes seemed to stay with them from then on. Valda could feel them on her as they made camp in the growing darkness.

For once they set up watches as the unease crept through the group, not wanting to rely on waking up in time. Valda took the first turn. She didn't feel she would be able to sleep at all that night.

As slow, rhythmic breathing was finally heard from the men, Valda sat by herself, the stones of the desert barely shining under the sliver of moon that remained to them. She shivered involuntarily, even wrapped in her blankets as she was.

Silence weighed all around her. She thought she was finally safe until - the red eyes appeared right in front of her.

How it got there, she had no idea. Rather, how _they _got there, as she realized that a pack of these lesser demons had crept among their blankets.

She woke the men up the quickest way she knew how, sending a rumbling earthquake through the camp. In an instant, they had bounded to their feet. But Valda was already facing the otherwordly creatures.

She poured exploding fire over them, only to see it barely graze their leathery hide. One flapped its wings to scornfully shake off the last of the embers.

The swordsmen were at her side, but the thing raised one clawed hand to swipe Loki, raking a deep gash in his sword arm before he could even get in his first cut. Loki instinctively grabbed his arm to stop the blood that was beginning to rise to the surface, but the cut was too deep and too long.

Richard impulsively stepped in front of Valda, but by the time she realized what was happening, it was too late. She felt the first Mana she had sensed from the demons, and Richard caught the full brunt of the dark force that had been directed at her. He stumbled to his knees, hands going to his head as he tried to fight it as Valda had once struggled against it.

Suddenly, she remembered how she had fought it herself before. A quick balance of all the elements, and it wrapped around the demon like a ring, squeezing the creature before she lost the spell. The hellspawn roared in frustration, and she felt the dark force shatter.

Not an especially powerful rainbow dust, but it did the trick, as Richard recovered himself. The demon, however, shook off any lingering ill effects like water.

Water. That must be it, if fire slid off so easily. And light. Used together, they weren't opposites, but...

Ice smashed into the demon, causing howls of pain and scars like burns all over its body, before a powerful blast of light obliterated it, putting it out of its misery as its howl hung in the air as if it had not been cut off.

"That's it!" Valda shouted. "Loki! Ice saber over here!"

The disabled Swordmaster nodded, still clutching his shredded arm, and a moment later Richard's sword glowed with Undine's cool blue light. While Valda rapidly reduced the thing's brethren to ashes, Richard swung arrogantly at those who escaped the Grand Divina's magical strength. He didn't need Loki's skill or speed; the vicious trails his sword left, cleaving through demon hide, were more than enough.

Finally, a now-paltry beam of life removed the last spawn of the underworld from their presence. Valda felt shaky with the amount of raw power that had flown through her. Doubling up your spell that way took a lot more energy than casting them separately.

Richard, meanwhile, was tending to his friend. It was taking a couple of tries, but slowly the flesh was mending. A vague scar, invisible had she not been looking for it, traveled from shoulder to forearm; the fact that there was a scar at all testified to the severity of the injury.

"I think we must be getting close," Richard said, "for those things to be attacking that way." Neither Loki or Valda seemed inclined to answer.

Loki stood up to take his turn on watch. Valda did not ask, but silently buried herself in Richard's blankets.

He would have hardly objected anyway, but sensing her fear, he lay next to her. Richard tenderly wrapped her in his arms, she grateful to feel him close. "We're getting closer, Valda, soon enough all three of us will be going home." She tried fervently to share his hope.

--

Their efforts were slowly rewarded, if you could call it that, as the mountain known as Dragon's Hole began to fill their vision.

It reached into Valda's thoughts as well, and every night, even after she closed her eyes, that blood-red piece of rock was still there, dominating her dreams as much as her eyes. Sometimes she woke up sweating from those dreams, and if she was lucky, it was one of the nights that she had chosen to lie next to Richard. Some nights she wanted to be separate, but other nights, one of the lovers needed the other to be near; and if this was one of those, her jolt awake would be followed by the snaking of an arm around her, a hand reaching down for her own, the gesture so natural, so instinctive, that she could never be sure if he had even woken up.

But eventually, they found themselves passing through a cave at the top of a hill, to emerge on a windy pass high above the valleys of the glass desert. The air up here was thin, hazy, giving a purplish cast to the land below. A gaping stone maw greeted them, an enormous chiseled dragon's head, the entrance to Dragon's Hole.

What gave Valda her first clue was how the ancient sculpture looked so contrived. Loki seemed to feel something, too.

Richard strode forward with determination, but something made Valda call him back. "Richard!" she shouted.

He turned back to look at her. "What's wrong?"

"Just step back, will you?" She wasn't sure how she could explain - not a Mana-sense, but a funny feeling. Nevertheless, he listened to her, backtracking with a questioning expression. Valda gripped her skirts unwittingly as she tried to pinpoint what she was sensing.

How could she figure it out? She decided on a test spell, sending the smallest possible diamond missiles against the stone head. They plinked off the stone before falling to the ground.

The dragon head roared into life.

Its eyes glared at the humans who had dared interrupt it from its slumber of who knows how many years. Enormous jaws closed and reopened to spout a fountain of flames into the air.

Valda threw herself to the ground without thinking, rolling back onto her back in time to splash mountains of water over the dragon, extinguishing its fiery breath. It looked at her in surprise as steam puffed out of its nostrils briefly, before diving at her with snapping jaws.

She was out of the way of the neck, but nevertheless Richard jumped before her to protect her from the enormous head. She almost laughed to herself. The prince rescuing a beautiful lady from a dragon. A completely outdated story in any country.

And the prince seemed not to know what to do now that he was there, gesticulating with his sword at a creature that would feel it like a splinter. The dragon head almost seemed to grin.

Loki was wisely holding back, waiting for an opening. If he had to save Richard, he would, but he was not foolhardy.

Valda had to act quick, before the dragon retained his powers of flame and gave Richard a fiery bath. If it was of stone, perhaps she could call down the opposite.

Stepping out into the open, she pulled on the powers of Jinn. The sky clouded over above her, and out of the gathering clouds, lightning streaked the sky to hit stone made flesh, fissuring the gray scaly exterior.

She definitely had its attention now, swiveling that enormous head towards her. The Grand Divina could only grin back, as she struck again.

Lightning. Thunder. The bolts, all the power she could feed them struck again and again, each time the exterior looking more and more like cracked pottery. And at the very end of her barrage, she surprised her foe with a powerful earthquake rumbling forwards into the mountain ahead.

The living shell fell apart from the head, and the creature slumped to the ground, leathery hide melting away and the core within returning to stone - not quite a skeleton, but close.

The swordsmen came up to look at the object of their troubles. "What was it?" Loki asked. "Monster, demon, or something else?"

"Something else," Valda told him. "I think this was a trap. I think the Dragon Emperor knows we are here."


	14. In the Mouth of the Dragon

**14. IN THE MOUTH OF THE DRAGON**

The trio felt slightly uncomfortable crossing into the mountain through the mouth of the now-stone-again dragon, but it was the only way in.

Loki started as they traversed the entry, a large, open cavern. "What is it?" asked Richard.

"I feel like I've been here before," he admitted slowly. "I feel almost like I was with her with the two of you... You're sure we haven't done this before?" he laughed, nervously.

Despite his efforts to break the mood with a joke, no one felt like laughing. Including Loki himself.

As if their mood could not be more on edge, Valda felt herself a nervous wreck by the time they entered the mountain proper, a spiraling mess of passages hovering over cliffs of unimaginable depth.

At the first fork, they were immediately faced with the challenge of how to find their way. This rabite warren of tunnels, the endless miles of rock so red it seemed steeped with blood... it all looked the same. How would they ever not get lost?

Richard voiced the question Valda had been turning over in her own head. The Grand Divina had no answers.

Unless... She walked to the wall, and leaned against it, her arms spread out, feeling the rock somehow both warm and cool at the same time. No questions came from behind; the men knew well now not to wonder what she was about when she was so obviously focused.

She closed her eyes, and opened her mind.

First, she pulled Earth through herself, feeling it as it seeped through her into the walls, and as clear as day, she could feel the structure of the rocks within, ordered arrays, space in between. Then, to Light, always her strength, grasping it and forcing it into those spaces, squeezing it into the tiniest crevasses...

When she stepped back, the wall shone for yards in each direction with a soft white light.

"What did you do, Valda?" Richard breathed, a little in awe of the sight, the magic of Lumina giving a twinge of peace to this tainted place.

Valda turned back with a swirl of blue gown, a self-satisfied smile crossing her face. "It was pretty easy, once I figured it out," she told her companions. "It won't last forever. I could make it last, but it would take more power. As it is, this will glow for several days, and I can do it over and over to mark where we've been."

--

It made traveling through the caverns clearer, though even with Valda's trick it still became clear that Dragon's Hole was a monstrosity to be reckoned with. She quickly adapted, swirling a splash of Luna's magic through when they found a dead end, giving it a duller color the same way most things changed in the night.

Speaking of night... It fell soon enough. The mountain was littered with enough holes to the outside to keep the time of day clear.

In fact, it fell again, and again, and again, as they painstakingly made their way through the mountain, tracing path after path with precision, not knowing exactly what they were looking for, only knowing they would know when they found it.

Valda was acquiring a great deal of practice on the dragons of the mountain. She soon figured out there were four types, each with their own vulnerabilities, and every time they attacked in groups, she got a little better at taking them out. Contemptuously, she swept a trio out of existence with a flurry of earth magic.

Dragons. She could practice for _months _on these dragons, there were so many.

She had lost track of how many times they had seen the sun's reflection come and go, when they found the statue. It looked at first as many of the other statues of the Goddess that one used to worship at, littered across towns and roads, planted in the big cities.

But as Valda drew closer, she realized something was missing. A head.

She reached towards the statue, expecting the same feeling of peace, but squealed as she drew her hand back. Richard was by her side in an instant.

"It feels like pain," she cried, the memory of that touch searing her still. "The Goddess's pain. If they had left her a head to cry with, she would."

"Who would do such a thing?" demanded Richard.

"I would," hissed a voice from behind the statue.

Into their view stepped a creature much like those of the glass desert, but larger and somehow, Valda knew, stronger. This greater demon strode to its enemies without fear.

It opened its mouth, and breathed out the very air of hell.

Valda's skin burned in the blast. This was fire, darkness, twisted, corrupted, and it felt as if it attacked Mana itself. She could not have formed a spell to save her life. Which was exactly what their enemy wanted. On her sides, she saw the men suffering as she was.

She felt weakened, collapsed, her ability to fight magic fading even as it attacked again. She was about to give up, when -

She reached into her pocket, and grasped the slender piece of metal that was the Eternal Rod.

Desperately, she threw it at the demon, it spiraling towards the hellspawn in imitation of swordwork she had seen Loki doing a hundred times before.

As it hit the demon, light exploded through the cavern, the demon screaming in pain before burning into ashes as the others. And suddenly Valda understood. The trickles of power she had fed into it from time to time had stayed, and grown right along with her in power. For that, she was grateful.

With the demon gone, she was possessed of a sudden urge to touch the statue again. Wary of another flash of pain, she gritted her teeth and stretched out. This time she felt... sadness, bone-deep sadness, but for what, she could not say.

"This is where we stop," she announced, all Queenly authority in her tone. "If the Goddess is with us anywhere, she is with us here."

--

Valda had presumably been in some kind of a deep sleep, increasingly rare in this mountain, when the hand shook her gently awake.

Not urgent, or she would have been rattled out of her bed; even her semi-conscious mind could process this. That left Richard, and part of her grasped the hand on her shoulder in anticipation of his attention.

Her eyes opened to see Loki.

Surprising enough on its own, but more so his expression. The typically reticent man had a wildness to his eyes right now, puffy bags indicating worry. It felt like the early hours of the morning, but she could have sworn he had not yet slept.

"Valda," he hesitated. "Please... I can't be alone with my own thoughts anymore..."

She only nodded, awareness rushing into her out of necessity. There was something wrong here, and she only hoped he could tell her what it was. Valda stood, shaking off the last bits of sleep.

This deep in the mountain, there were few places they could go. But they were near the center, the gaping hole above allowing moonlight to pour in. The crevasses of impossible depth that criss-crossed their path reflected the light above in a way that made the light seem to rise from beneath, belying the darkness below.

At one of the walls, the path spindly and treacherous, Loki finally stopped, while Valda patiently waited for him to find the words he needed.

"Past... future," he mused. Not yet looking to her, he was not so much speaking to himself, but perhaps to the very mountain before him. "Possibilities... impossibilities. Chance, and fate. All opposites.

"We have fire and water, earth and sky, dark and light. Why not these opposites as well?"

"You forget the last," she told him. "Luna and Dryad. Nothingness, and somethingness. Sometimes death and life. Perhaps they make the rest."

"And what about the things that must be? To which of those ladies does that belong? Tell me, and I'll pray to her now, if she will even hear." His smile was bitter.

It was not religion they were here to discuss, Valda knew. "I heard a saying. A person's life is ninety-nine percent fate... the other one percent is your hope guiding you."

"I think it's too late for me to hope," he told her, before abruptly changing the subject. "You are a Grand Divina. Few will ever reach the path of light twice over. What was it like? What happens when you follow the path of light?"

Valda thought back, to a time now a decade before. "The first step was easy."

"It always is, compared to the second." Loki grimaced. "I leave it to Richard to study the Mana theory, but the scholars say, if the choices are different, then there was doubt at the start. I must have doubted myself."

Valda pondered that. "What for those who follow dark twice? Have they no light?"

"It's not that there is no light," Loki replied. "It's that they no longer know how to use it to fight. We all wish we could only be light, but the darkness creeps in, until it becomes something we must accept, and become. Do you want to know the truth? I wish I could have accepted dark again, twice, to have that raw anger become my strength, my core, my self. So many things might be different, but part of me reaches for the light still."

He paused for a moment. "The first change is of your past. The second is of your future. What did you see of your future, Grand Divina? Was it light, peace and happiness? Do you remember?"

She did, even as she tried to forget, even as she wished she had the luxury of denying what the Goddess herself had shone her. "The path of Light has nightmares all its own," she told Loki, her voice heated. She shuddered under the weight of her memories.

"Then there is always a sacrifice," he said, his shoulders slumping.

"Only those who can face this, ever truly receive the Gift of Mana," she told him, coming up behind him to place an arm around him in what suddenly felt like an intensely awkward embrace.

There was nothing to it; they were too much alike, she and Loki. It now became apparent to her that it had always been her and Richard, he had always been the one for her. But still, something about it, as if they were other people, in other places... had he more of Simone's will, had she more of Richard's passion like her daughter...

He turned with a start, breaking her chain of thought. "It was hazy, Valda. I don't think everyone has this experience, sometimes it's as clear as day, but for me it wasn't. Ever since, I get weird inklings of the future, sometimes when I least expect it, like when we first entered the mountain. All I can remember is some things were for certain, and I've pretended for as long as I could that I could keep that one percent of hope, but I think it's too late. The storm is coming."

Valda felt chills even in the warmth of the mountain. "But you have so much to live for..."

"I know," Loki nodded. "My wife, my children... If only..." He drifted off, and Valda tried to murmur something comforting, trying to dredge herself out of her own thoughts.

"I saw _her_, Valda," Loki suddenly broke in, "while we were in Altena." Valda looked around frantically, but Richard was nowhere to be seen. "I was walking down a hallway and there she was, a little girl, out playing in the courtyard... so much of you in her, but I could see Richard, too, a mile away... I know why you kept it from him, but if only one day she might know the love her parents had for each other..."

He wept then, and Valda pulled him down to a seated position. Neither of them had the strength to stand any longer. As she leaned against the rock wall, he sank down gratefully. He descended to curl into an almost fetal position, and he laid his head in her lap. Instinctively, Valda outstretched her hand to stroke his hair, a maternal gesture.

She leaned against the rock. Not the most comfortable location, but as she felt Loki's breathing grow regular, her own eyes grew heavy-lidded, and her troubles drew her for once deeper into sleep.

--

It was a light that woke her up. Not the reflective light that permeated the cabins of Dragon's Hole, but a piercing pinpoint that shone through eyelids that she would rather keep closed.

Reluctantly, she opened them to see... the familiar fairy.

Loki dozed still in her lap. Valda cracked her stiffened neck, and regarded the newcomer accusingly. "You," she began. "So you have been here, all this time. Where were you when we needed your help?"

"And when was that?" the tiny being demanded. Valda could have sworn she saw anger cross the face of the small being, who had never before shown any expression other than that poignant sadness.

"You... the Goddess... the Elementals... you were there with us to find the Dragon Emperor the first time. We've been alone, so alone, with things we cannot understand and don't know how to handle. Have we been abandoned?"

Valda gently shifted Loki's sleeping form to allow herself to stand. Not that the fairy was especially tall, but somehow it made her feel better to do so. As the Fairy flapped her wings, she flitted to look Valda in the eye.

"Grand Divina. The holiest of mages, but you know little, so little," she mourned. "There is nothing we could have done. You are dealing with things so far beyond my influence, that I can only stand aside and hope. What do you know of what I can do? I will never be the Goddess. I can only take what she has given me, and she can only give me so much, for the time is not yet urgent." 

"Not urgent?" Valda barked. On the hard ground, Loki stirred, and suddenly embarrassed, Valda lowered her voice as to not disturb him. "What could be more urgent?"

The Fairy only looked at her, and suddenly Valda was grateful her question had not been answered. She had already hear it, in a hundred different voices, it seemed, and now they all bubbled up, Loki's over all. The storm was coming.

She softened suddenly. "For some, that bit of hope is already gone," she inquired. The fairy only nodded her assent.

Loki stirred from where he lay on the hard ground. Valda locked eyes with the messenger of the Goddess, the fairy seeming at as much a loss for words as she herself was.

"Go now," Valda finally said. "And thank you, for everything you've done." She didn't know what prompted the last, but suddenly she felt it, profoundly.

With a nod to acknowledge, the fairy returned to her sanctuary, as Loki woke groggily. He did not speak, and the only expression she saw on his face was the same sadness she had so often associated with the fairy.

As he stood, they returned reluctantly, side by side, neither looking at the other.

Richard was already awake. "Where were you?" he asked, puzzled. Then he seemed to catch the mood they were in, and it spread to him as if it was something catching.

Neither felt inclined to answer, as Richard tried to smooth the mood while he distributed the breakfast he had already begun preparing. He spoke of frivolous things, trying to pull his two friends from their gloom, but Valda could not tell him it was wasted effort. In fact, it was kind of annoying.

Valda ate her breakfast slowly, tastelessly. "I think we're close, I can almost feel it," Richard rambled, aimlessly filling up conversation.

"Shut up," Loki finally told him.

"What?!" Richard didn't seem to know whether to be offended or hurt.

"Shut up, I said! Of course we're close, he's known we're here since we got here! Any minute know he'll come to destroy us!" Loki laughed, almost madly. Richard set his jaw, saying nothing.

Valda didn't know who to go to first as she instinctively jumped between he two men, but finally settled on Loki. "Loki! You don't mean it!" she cried, taking his head in her hands as she leaned down. She turned to Richard, his face as of stone. "Richard! Say something, say you didn't mean it!"

Richard remained stubbornly silent. "Richard! Please! For the love of the Goddess! For me, if not for Her!"

The Prince of Forcena rose, reluctantly, to join the other two, squatting to look his best friend in the eye. "I'm sorry," he finally told the other man. "This is getting to all of us."

"Sorry," Loki mumbled. "Richard..." he stuttered, awkwardly, "you're the best man I've ever known." The two shook hands, solemnly, then hugged in that strange, back-slapping masculine way.

Rising to their feet, the two looked towards Valda, who suddenly felt the weight of both sets of eyes on her, looking to her to make the decision. "Let's be on our way," she said, briskly, hiding her own discomfort under confidence as she had seen them do so many times before.

--

The monotony was broken up somewhat as they followed what was clearly a new path, steps heading down into a depth of the cavern they had not yet explored.

Upwards far above them, it opened to the sky, and the chamber was filled with light. More light reflected from the numerous wide crevasses which crisscrossed most of the floor space, leaving only narrow ledges above the chasms that made Valda shudder to cross.

That wasn't the only thing that made her shudder. She wasn't sure what she felt, perhaps she had developed something of a sixth sense, but she could almost feel the nearness of the Dragon Emperor, almost pinpoint his exact location. It was like pinpricks in her brain.

Looking at her companions, she saw the barest flicker of anxiety on Richard's face. On Loki's, there was nothing left but grim determination.

One more corner, and there he was.

The pale, gaunt man she knew all too well smirked as if he had been waiting for them. But Valda knew, she had been waiting for him as well.

"Dragon Emperor," Richard taunted. "Ready for us to whup you again?"

He said nothing, only struck.

Valda was ready for him. Ice met fire to sizzle into steam.

Their enemy spoke then. "You've gained in power, Sorceress. All the better for me."

"That's Grand Divina to you, devil!" she cried, and poured her energy into the spell, fire then water on top of each other, striking the Dragon Emperor full force. He squealed in pain like a wounded rabite. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the men stand back, well away from the barrage of magic filling the cavern.

Valda was filled with fury, but could not allow it to get the better of her. She pushed down that anger, compacting it into a tight little ball within her like a block of ice around her heart, her temper growing as cold as the ice queen she was. From her carefully controlled emotions, she drew her strength, the power that might otherwise overwhelm her heeding her beck and call.

Double spells. Triple spells. Quadra spells, fire, ice, lightning and earth raining down on the Dragon Emperor who barely had time to send a feeble amount of dark energy her way before the barrage began once again. Even reining in her emotions, part of her, now terribly distant, exulted in the glory of making her enemy cower before her.

She had been preparing a final combination all four elements followed by light, a blow she hoped would finish him off forever, when from somewhere he found the strength to strike back. Not with Dark, but with Earth.

The stone cloud enveloped her, slamming her against the wall, holding her immobile and just a little too tight for comfort. Her chest felt constricted; her breath was short.

Richard was already running to strike, but the Dragon Emperor shouted, "Stop right there. One squeeze, and she's dead." He sent a scornful lightning bolt to knock the Lord off his feet, just in case he hadn't gotten the message.

Valda considered, carefully, not yet even beginning to pull on Mana lest her captor take it the wrong way, and decide to snuff out her life right then and there. If she were to break this spell, she would have only one chance, and a quick one at that.

The Dragon Emperor traversed the spindly paths heedlessly of the drops below, his eyes focused only on his prize until he stood before her, eye to eye. Valda used all of her experience to still her expression, to not give him the satisfaction of her fear. "And so we find ourselves here once again," he told her.

"You've gained power, but the power of a mere human will never be enough. If only I had been able to release even one Stone. Those Goddess-damned stones still elude me," the Dragon Emperor snarled. "Even with the fading of Mana, the seals hold, and the magic of the underworld is not enough to break them. Well, I guess I will have to do this the traditional way then. The ancient magic of my hometown, who figured out how to break the seal. Too bad they decided it should require the sacrifice of a human life."

"Who shall I take first?" he asked, mad eyes sweeping over the three of them, to settle on Valda. She felt a brush against her mind, resisting it with all her might, remembering pain... remembering something else...

She pushed it, but it did not disappear. It... melted, somewhere into the depths of her thoughts, and where the drips flowed into... she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

Richard and Loki clenched their swords, on either side, but they were blind to the conflict that ran underneath, and stilled by their fear for her safety. Valda forced herself to return that insane blue-eyed gaze, until he finally broke first.

"Not you, of course. I have more use for you yet. I only sacrifice those I have little better use for."

He turned back to her. "I made you a promise the last time. Which one shall it be? Which one would hurt you the most?"

Valda felt panic welling within, and though she tried hard to remain neutral, something on her face must have showed. "The Prince of Forcena. I should have guessed." And he struck, magic raining down on the hapless Richard.

Valda struck too. The Dragon Emperor's energy temporarily diverted, one quick swipe of lightning was all it took to free her, and she was ready to fight again.

But Loki had already seized his opening, and his sword was already whirling around the Dragon Emperor before she could get a clear shot. His Ragnarok shone with the magic of Luna. The elemental of emptiness, of nothingness, of death. Was that what he had chosen?

Richard groaned, pulling on the magic of Lumina to heal himself, slowly getting to his feet, too late to get into the fight. The Dragon Emperor had employed the staff he carried as a defense against the Swordmaster's attacks.

Loki was pushing the Dragon Emperor hard, his moon-enchanted saber repairing him even before Richard could heal him. The Dragon Rod the Emperor carried, though made of some resilient metal, was not an effective defense against a swordsman swirling his weapon with unbelievable skill. But still, he maintained himself in the fight, throwing haphazard spells to disrupt his opponent.

Valda couldn't safely cast a spell his way, but maybe she could do something else. She found the Eternal Rod, and pulled it out with trepidation. Pouring all the strength of light she possessed into the slender implement, she flung it with all her strength, praying it would meet its mark.

It scored a direct hit, cleanly colliding with the Dragon Emperor's chest as he braced against another one of Loki's blows. He stumbled, for the first time giving Loki an advantage in the fight. Loki swung, and the Dragon Emperor instinctively recoiled, putting him right at the edge of the cliff.

Their enemy was teetering at the edge of the crevasse. He was sustaining serious injuries, and had given up casting spells. Richard and Valda had no choice but to watch the fight conclude, sharing a fearful glance across the cavern.

Valda could not have predicted what would happen next.

Loki gave a masterful swipe to the Dragon Emperor's arm, and he dropped his rod to the ground, the metallic clink echoing through the cavern. Another swipe, and the Dragon Emperor stumbled, losing footing on the precipice.

Flailing, he grabbed Loki's arm, and pulled Loki with him into the bottomless pit as he fell. Loki released his grasp on his sword as he fell forward to his death.

Valda heard Loki's cry, and unaccountably the Fairy's shriek as well, as she plunged to death along with her host. Then another scream, and Valda realized it was her own voice crying out, her mind desperately throwing out air spells, trying to catch Loki before he fell out of her reach. Dimly she noticed Richard beside her, sword at the ready in an equally futile gesture.

Valda kept casting in vain hope until she felt hands behind her, firmly pulling her to her feet. Richard turned her by the shoulders and forced her to face him. "You can't do more, Valda, he's gone. The Fairy too." Tears flowed freely down his cheeks. Despite all his arrogance, Richard now showed her only sadness, and his example allowed Valda to break her usual cool composure.

The tears came then, and she buried her head in his shoulder, not caring about the coldness of his armor as he put warm arms around her, with a tenderness he had not in a long time.

Suddenly, it was just the two of them. As wonderful as that might have felt another time, the moment felt nothing but marred by the absence of Loki.

--

It was hours that they stayed there, Valda and Richard, trying to figure out some way to get their friend back, until finally they were forced to admit defeat.

Nothing was left of either, but their weapons. Richard picked up the Ragnarok, touching it reverently. "The best man you'd ever met, Loki. Liar. You were always a better man than me. Your oath was to protect me to the death, and you did."

The Dragon Rod had tumbled peculiarly across the smaller Eternal Rod. Light and Dark, crossing each other, as it had always had been. Valda bent to wrap her right hand around them both, and squeezed as if she could force something out of the silent weapons. The Mana of the staves seemed to hum together, bringing the Grand Divina a small sense of comfort, as did Richard's arm around her shoulders as he gently turned her away at last.

With Valda's markings, the way out was easy, and quick. Less than a day, and they were out of the mountain of Dragon's Hole.

That was when it really hit her.

"He's gone, he's really gone," she cried, the tears forming no matter how hard she tried to fight them. Richard's eyes were wet as well, for once he not trying to pretend he could handle more than he could. The droplets fell from their eyes to be lost in the sparkling sand as they walked.

Neither he nor she could remember much later about that journey across the Glass Desert. Days passed, neither had any appetite, each reminding each other to eat and drink, mourning even as they preoccupied themselves with simple survival.

Nor did they talk much. Somehow, as close as they were, it seemed like something was missing without Loki there.

Finally, at some point, they stumbled onto the beach. Richard pulled the flute from Loki's abandoned pack.

Valda's heart sank for a few long seconds until the turtle arrived. She hadn't been sure he would come. Booskaboo himself seemed perturbed by the lack of one passenger. Valda patted his snout tenderly. "He's gone," she told him.

The turtle only dipped his head in response, as Valda and Richard clambered on.

"It never worked for me before. I thought it was the fairy," Richard said.

"Perhaps the Goddess sensed our need," suggested Valda.

That tickled a thought in her head. "Richard... I wonder. I think the fairy knew."

"Knew what?" Richard asked, even though he probably already suspected the answer.

"That she was going to die. Maybe she was sent here for that purpose. Maybe that's why she always looked so sad."

"But wasn't that her purpose? Doing the Goddess's bidding?"

"Maybe. I don't know enough about fairies. But I think... Richard, I think maybe Loki knew too. He only told me snippets, but... maybe from the fairy. Maybe from the second class change. Maybe both, she was in his head at the time."

"You could be right," Richard conceded. "Do you remember much from that second change?"

"Altogether too much," Valda told him. "You?"

"Very little," he told her. "Ideas, images. In fact, I only came out of it with one idea for certain."

"And that was?" she prodded.

"That I was going to end up falling in love with you."

She didn't know how to react to that, exactly. "You knew? Was everything after that just a formality?"

"No, Valda," he sighed, taking her hand, a romantic gesture marred only by their location aboard a large aquatic beast. "I knew I would, but I didn't know when. What happened between us afterward, was about the _wanting _- and that was not from the Goddess. That was always only you and me."

--

For once, Valda was grateful how far Elrand was from Altena. She needed time to be alone, to think.

She had sent for her carriage; she expected it in three days. She had asked Richard not to accompany her back to Altena.

But she was reluctant to leave him yet. So she stayed with him, just the two of them, in the finest room at the Elrand Inn. Something about being there just the two of them felt right, yet wrong at the same time. She couldn't get used to the feeling of just the two of them alone.

They had spent the better part of the afternoon sorting out their possessions. Valda had shoved everything having to do with this journey into Richard's surprised hands, keeping only her own Eternal Rod. It was a gift, after all. He gripped Loki's sword with an intensity she thought few others might have noted, but offered her the flute. "Altena is far, you could use this."

"Take it," she said, pushing his arms away with bitterness in her voice. "I don't want to see any of it ever again." He took it with hurt in his eyes. Whether for her or Loki, she could not say for sure.

She paused when they came to the Dragon Rod. "What about this one?" Richard asked her.

Darkness grew over her face. "This," she began. "This one is for me to keep."

The sun fell over the snowfields, setting early this time of year, barely breaking through the gray clouds that showed a storm was coming. Dinner was served to their room, and the food eaten as tastelessly as the wine was gulped down by the both of them, finally lowering only the late stillness of the night over the two of them.

It might be the finest room, but it had only one large bed, onto which Valda slumped, absolutely determined to be inconsolable. But it was only the first touch of Richard, lying at her side, to which she responded without thinking, and by the time she realized had turned to kiss him, it was too late.

Past and present was lost, as they found themselves clawing at each other in a frenzied embrace. Over and over they made love, the tears pouring down, no longer knowing whether they were his or hers, mingling with the pleasure to create a sweet sort of pain all their own. And that pain again was lost in love for these few precious moments.

She clung to him like that branch in a storm, wondering if he was all she had ever had to cling to.

Valda had no idea how late it might be as she finally reclined exhausted against him, his fingers twirling her violet hair. She remembered once making love with that passion, and she had ended up with Angela, the daughter he still did not know he had.

Now, she propped herself up on elbows to look out the window. She felt a lock of her violet hair slide off her back to nearly graze the floor next to the bed.

Richard lay next to her, looking up at her. She turned from the outside to return his gaze. It had a seriousness she had not seen before.

"Marry me, Valda," he said.

Valda laughed throatily, but as she looked back at him she saw he was deadly serious. "You're kidding."

"No, I'm not. Even if we have to live apart some of the time, if we can be together at least every once in a while... you never know when you might lose someone you love. Marry me, and at least I won't be afraid of losing you to someone else."

_And I will lose my daughter to Forcena, _she thought to herself_. Our daughter. _The next thing was not what she wanted to say, nor was it what he wanted to hear, so she said it as gently as possible, knowing it would break his heart.

"No."

The wounded expression was everything she had feared. "Don't leave it like this, Valda."

"You have your path, Richard, and I have mine," she replied. "It's the way it has always been, and it's the way it will have to be."


	15. The Eye of the Storm

**15. THE EYE OF THE STORM**

"Why can't I go to Forcena?" screamed Angela.

The girl had become ever more recalcitrant since her grandfather's death, and Valda was finding it harder and harder to maintain control. She couldn't wait until her ten-year old daughter grew old enough to take on royal consorts, so someone else could be frustrated by her instead.

And even so, she reminded herself, it's another seven years until she is safe, and Forcena cannot take her.

Of course, she could not explain all this to her daughter, not yet. So instead, she resorted to anger. "Because it's a state occasion, and you, young lady, are showing me more than ever how _not_ ready you are to represent the crown. Maybe in a few years, when you start acting like a grown woman!"

A little harsh, perhaps. Angela's lip quivered slightly. Valda knew what a powerful effect her anger had on her wayward daughter, but it rather sickened her, the manipulative way she had just used that to her advantage.

Angela paused as if to argue more, but settled for getting the last word in. "That's it! I'm outta here!" And with a swish of her red dress, she stomped out of the room.

At her daughter's retreating footsteps, Valda sank into a chair, feeling a headache starting to form. Just for fun, she started to form small holy balls of light in the air in front of her, trying to get her mind working on something else.

--

The castle of Forcena was a blur of activity celebrating the ascension of their new king. Valda greeted dignitaries of many nations with polite detachment, finding comfort in once again playing the role of Altena's famously icy sovereign.

Finally, at least one familiar face was seen, though now in a gold-worked crown and green silk. It was a far cry from what Valda had seen her in last time.

"Riesz!" she called, and the woman turned, recognition sweeping across her face. Although, Valda thought, there probably weren't a lot of other women around with violet hair reaching most of the way to the floor. As Valda approached, she saw the Amazon's face looked more pale and thin, and there were a couple of other significant differences.

"It's only Minerva now," the Rolantic Queen told her, sighing. "I haven't been able to lead the Amazon army since my first pregnancy, it left me rather ill. Though it was worth it," she said, her arm reaching down around the shoulders of a small girl of perhaps seven or eight. "Lise, say hello to Queen Valda, of Altena."

"Pleased to meet you, your Majesty," the girl said, with a perfect curtsy and a hint of shyness. No question, this was the Princess of Rolante. Her hair might be golden instead of warm brown, but her eyes and face looked exactly like her mother.

"It is good to meet you too, your Highness." Lise smiled shyly at Valda's address to her.

"Why don't you go find your father, he won't be able to find you, you know he can't see so well anymore," Minerva told her daughter, smoothing her silky hair. It was a tender gesture Valda had rarely shared with her own temperamental daughter.

As Lise skipped off, Minerva returned her attention to Valda. "She acts so much like a perfect queen already, but it's not what Rolante needs, it's what a girl thinks she should do. She's going to have to learn to do some of what _she _wants for herself to be a grown woman. Well, once she hits nine or ten and begins her Amazon training, I'll be able to teach her that as well."

"Perhaps having a new sibling will help," Valda murmured, edging towards the topic she was dying to ask about. "So, when are you due?" On a figure as slender as Minerva's, that definitely was not a beer belly.

"Five more months." Minerva smiled, but looked afraid as well. "I think that will have to be the last for me, but Joster and I wanted a boy. Lise will rule, of course, but it's kind of considered lucky to have one of each, more harmonious with the Goddess."

With a sweet child like Lise, Valda would probably want a second child as well. With the one she had, though... Valda was not eager for another anytime soon.

--

After the coronation, Valda swept into the banquet hall to greet the newly-crowned King Richard. Despite her place of honor in the audience, she had not been close enough to do more than casually observe the man.

But now, as she approached, he turned from his advisors to greet her with a kiss on each cheek, the most intimate gesture he could permit in public.

"Congratulations," Valda murmured.

"It's good to see you too, Valda." He turned back to the men he had been talking to. "Well, kind sirs, I'm the king now, and the king says he is going to take a walk with a beautiful woman." Didn't even ask her, typical Richard behavior.

Still, she didn't mind as he led her outside into the gardens. He held her hand, and looked at her as if he might have wanted to kiss her, but he was maintaining the dignity of the day. For which she was grateful.

He spoke at last. "What do you think about my beard?" he said, tugging at the wiry blond hair now sprouting from his chin.

"I hate it," Valda immediately affirmed.

Richard broke into laughter. "Goddess, I was hoping you would say something like that. It brings me away from my other worries. There's something... well, I thought we would never have to worry about this again, but you have to know."

Valda gave him a quizzical look, and felt a knot in her stomach at the somber expression he adopted, the more so when he put an arm around her and covertly looked around for other listeners.

"A few months ago," he began, "we took a group of Navarre raiders into custody. They weren't dangerous, just looking to steal as Navarrese do, but more importantly... Valda, they had just come from Pedan. Or what's left of it."

Pedan. Valda breathed in sharply. Her experience there still gave her nightmares, not just of what she could remember, but something she could not and knew she desperately needed to. "What happened?" she finally asked.

Richard remained silent, and across his face spread that wise but weary expression that had appeared ever more easily through the years. "It was destroyed. It might be possible to find the buildings still, but... the people... they are as dead as the people of the Ancient City of Light."

Valda remembered the screams she had heard while in those ancient ruins, high above Wendel. "No... no... it can't be," she murmured urgently, hands to temples, grasping her hair as she shook her head back and forth. "All that knowledge, lost... all that magic, doing them no good... the first civilization of this world... who could do such a thing?"

Richard gripped her arms and pulled her to him, roughly. "Valda, you have to be strong." She quivered slightly, but nodded, and he relaxed his grip, but did not let her go quite yet. "Valda... We asked all the Navarrese separately... and they all... they saw a shadow of a dragon prowling through the ruins at night."

"No... No! It can't be! We've faced him twice!" she whispered in fear.

Richard only nodded, eyes liked an aged man. "I don't see what else. The Dragon Emperor comes home to Pedan, to destroy it. Was he after its magic?"

Valda forced her panicked emotions into some semblance of composure. "It could be," she replied, racking her brain beneath the fear. "That is one possibility. But they had not just magic, but knowledge, and if it was knowledge, then it could be knowledge that he wanted no one else to have." She thought of the mages, her relatives from an ancient past, and the tablet that spoke in words of Mana itself. She thought of the old woman and her son, and what they had said about trying to find the Mana Stone before it was too late. "I don't know if they had a chance to save anything of it. With all that magic, they should have found a way."

She thought she had maintained a firm voice, but something must have shone through, as Richard wrapped his arms around her, and she leaned against his chest in a way that brought back memories. And with those memories, others came up. Loki. Her dear friend, who had died to kill an enemy who may haunt them once again. Tears welled in her eyes as the years flowed back.

Sniffling in a most un-regal manner, she turned to Richard to see her thoughts and emotions reflected, his own eyes a touch dewy. "It feels strange without Loki here on this day." Valda silently nodded her agreement.

More silence. "Loki's son is nine now. You know his mother passed as well?"

"Yes, you told me in your letters," Valda replied.

"I've been talking with his aunt. I think I am going to train him with my knights in a few years, but I will leave it to him as to whether he want to join. He could serve as a mercenary first, and then if he wants to go somewhere else, he would be free to leave."

"What's the boy like?" Valda wondered.

Richard sighed. "Angry. Very angry. Not a bully, he knows his morals, but he will definitely fight when another kid's willing. He idolized his father, and then to lose both him and his mother in such a short time... His aunt does the best she can, but I feel like I owe it to Loki to look after his son."

"Speaking of sons," Valda wondered, "Is the king planning to produce one anytime soon?" If he did, that would solve a lot of Valda's difficulties. Angela was currently his only blood.

"Why, I'm waiting for you to abdicate and do that for me," Richard teased. "But seriously, a man has a lot more time than a woman to contemplate that. What about you? You have the same problem."

"Don't change the subject," Valda responded curtly.

Richard stopped and turned to face her. "Valda, if there's no one in Altena, I can think of some of my knights... strong men, and intelligent... if what you need is an heir..." She saw a bit of jealousy in his eyes. It wasn't exactly what he wanted to do, but he was trying to think of her own good.

Valda made it a habit to never tell an outright lie. One lie could diminish her credibility with the people forever. But she knew she had to respond very carefully. "I thank you for your concern, your Majesty," she said, with some warmth, even as she drew herself up to face him. "But I already know who will provide the heir to Altena."

The jealousy grew worse, and Valda turned away. Good. It was better if he thought that way.

They walked slowly back towards the castle. Seven more years of pretending.

--

Richard's story echoed in her mind for months afterward. It was just one more thorn in the side of the Queen of Altena.

Valda had wanted to think that the changes in Mana were somehow the work of the Dragon Emperor, but he was as good as dead now, Pedan news notwithstanding, and the situation was the same. Where once the loss of Mana could only be seen over the course of years, now she saw the difference over months, sometimes even weeks.

And her hopes of doing something to stop the changes in Mana were just as dead. She was finding it harder and harder to generate the heat needed for her country to survive. This last winter, snow had actually fallen within Altena city itself.

The troubled queen was working in her study one day when a messenger came in with a sealed envelope for her. "Your Majesty, this man asks a word with you."

Valda took the letter and bid the woman wait as she read it. Her brow knit in surprise as she read the contents.

"I will see him," she told her servant, tapping the paper thoughtfully on the table as the woman left.

--

She estimated the blond man who entered was perhaps eight or ten years her junior, arrogance embodied, entering with a swirl of a crimson cape. He would have to be, to write what he had.

"Your Majesty, I am Koren, your humble servant," he bowed, with a flourish.

"Close the door," she told him sharply.

He did, and sat across from her without being invited. She looked at him over intertwined hands, deciding whether or not to speak first.

He finally proceeded. "Your Majesty, I realize not many understand yet that your spells have started to weaken." That was true; it was a tightly held secret, but somehow Koren knew. He paused to see her reaction, but she gave him the nod to continue.

"I left Altena three years ago, having tried for years in vain to learn our brand of magic. I underwent a pilgrimage to the Elementals, and learned a great many things. I went beyond where the Elementals showed me, and learned even more.

"I have been to places you couldn't imagine. I have been where angels fear to tread. I think that we can no longer use the magics we have been using, if we want to survive, but perhaps there is another way."

"You're an Oracle," she said. It was now obvious to her.

"Even more so," he said, leaning forward to whisper in her ear. "A Black Magus."

That got her attention. Anyone who so much as survived the raise to Magus was not to be taken lightly.

"Show me," she said.

As Koren began to cast, Valda leaned in, captivated. She felt his power brushing her own mind, sinking in, and she let it wash over her.

--

Valda had been working with her new advisor, Koren, for a couple of weeks when Angela burst in, upset as always. "Mother, _more _magic classes, why do I need so many - " Angela stopped mid-tirade as she saw her mother was not alone.

Valda gave her a long look before speaking, enough for Angela to start showing signs of embarrassment. "Because you will be able to start using magic any day now, Angela, and I mean to be ready."

She turned to Koren. "Pardon the interruption. Koren, I don't believe you've met yet my daughter, Angela?"

Koren turned to the Princess. "It is good to meet you at last, Angela. I see the daughter is as beautiful as the mother."

Angela was not so impressed. "Hi." she said curtly. "Haven't I heard of you before? Weren't you that same guy they used to make fun of for not knowing a speck of magic?" Koren half-stood, anger flushing his face.

"Mind your manners!" Valda told her daughter sharply.

Angela sniffed, then turned to leave the room with a toss of wavy violet hair. Not surprising, Angela was jealous of any competition for her mother's attention. Or for anyone else's attention, these days.

"You must excuse my daughter," she told her advisor. "She is stubborn and selfish, and still has much to learn."

"Well, maybe someone will teach her a lesson. I wonder, was she born before you fought the Dragon Emperor?" wondered Koren.

"Well, no, but... if you must know, she had already been conceived." Valda laughed gaily at the thought, like a girl. Something about this man made her want to spill her secrets. Though the secret of Angela's father was still locked deep within her heart.

"Oh." Koren seemed slightly disappointed.

Turning back to the matter at hand, Valda pushed her daughter out of her head for the moment. "So tell me again what you were saying."

He leaned very close. Well, he was certainly pretty enough for a consort, but if he had any greater ambitions, she would set him straight. "Well, Valda, if we can tap into the energy of the Mana Stone of Ice..."

--

Angela put her head to the door, as she had so many times in the year since Koren had come to Altena. But it was just as it had been so many times before, her mother was tightly closeted in her study with the man, nothing audible but a dull buzz of conversation.

She would have loved to hear what they were talking about. Valda spend more and more time with her strange advisor who had shown up out of nowhere, and Angela did not like it. Her mother was still the same as she always had been - strict, distant, preoccupied. Altena had its troubles. Even Angela knew something was wrong when it had snowed in the city; it had taken weeks for the rumors to be suppressed. But even though she reminded herself this was her mother's duty, it still hurt to take second place.

And Koren was just the icing on the cake. She suspected there was more to his relationship with her mother than met the eye, but she had no proof. She couldn't understand what her mother saw in the guy, the jerk who was always condescending towards her. She could only hope Valda meant something casual; had Valda meant to marry anyone, it would have been whatever man was her father, but if he didn't cut it, no one would.

Angela was beginning to understand the interest, though. She had noticed how the boys in the castle had started to look at her differently; even, occasionally, one of the men. And now that she was almost thirteen, she found herself looking back.

She had kissed a couple of boys, and found herself thinking much more about those boys than the magic classes she seemed to be endlessly attending. Her teachers and her mother had been blathering on at her forever about what a great wizard she would make, but so far, she didn't see what they saw. She tried, she really did, but every time it was almost as if something in her did not want to learn magic.

Angela turned down the corridor, frustrated and lonely, flipping her hair absentmindedly. A shiver passed through her, and she wrapped her arms around shoulders exposed by her favorite red dress, a clingy thing that got her a lot of the attention she was craving. She reminded herself to bring a cloak next time, but for the moment, she let the cold seep in to her skin, just another thing changing around her.

--

**The end... or the beginning?**

**Author's Note:** What happens as Koren drives the rocky relationship between Valda and her daughter apart? How does Valda's decision shape the future of Altena? Where did Angela's magical promise go? Do Valda and Richard ever get a happy ending?

For more information, please proceed to "Dark and Light".


	16. Valda's History Book

**THE ARCANE BOOK**

**IN THE BEGINNING**

In the beginning, there was only Chaos. This was not Darkness, which has an order to it.

Then appeared the Goddess. She was not Light, which has a chaos to it. She was Order.

She took the chaotic energy of the universe and corralled it into eight elements of four opposing pairs... And all eight were used to create the world. These elements are: Light/Dark, Earth/Wind, Fire/Water, and Moon/Tree. Her power became known as Mana, and being too powerful to handle directly, humans have learned to utilize it through these individual elements.

The chaotic energy was contained in eight Mana Stones, even as the energy strained to release itself. Should this energy be released, its physical form would be one of the monsters known as God-Beasts. In order to control these new elements, She created eight Elemental Spirits to guard each part of the energy she had contained. Though all these minor deities have immense power in their realm, the deliberate splintering of the elements ensures none have absolute power.

The actual energy used to contain the elements is maintained in the form of a "Sword" in the Holyland. The raw power of this artifact could be used for good, or for evil, being of neither. The Goddess placed a layer of protection on the sword, so that She may chose for herself who can receive it.

Once her tasks were completed, the Goddess herself chose the corporeal form of a tree. This has been interpreted to be favoritism towards the Tree element. The Moon/Tree opposition has often been misunderstood. The Moon element represents the Void, change, the absence of life, whereas the Tree element represents creation, reproduction, perpetuation of life. Perhaps the Goddess gives her blessing to Life itself this way.

It is important to realize that the Goddess, the God-Beasts, the Elementals, the Sword, the Stones all exist in both forms of matter, and forms of energy (i.e. magic). In the physical forms, they are closest to the world, and possess great power; at the same time, they are part of this world, and are as vulnerable as the rest of us.

**THE RISE OF HUMANITY**

The first great cities of the world were Pedan, and the Ancient City of Light, whose name is lost to us. Both appeared well over a thousand years ago, and grew to a position of prominence in the ancient world. The remainder of the human race was comprised of smaller tribal communities.

On a lush tropical island, Pedan discovered the powers of the Goddess, called Mana, and created Magic, harnessing and expanding the powers granted by the Elementals to create a civilization never before seen. To this day, their works are unequalled. For hundreds of years, this magic dominated the civilized world, and the power of Mana was worshipped, appreciating not only the Goddess herself, but the blessings of Mana she gives. This became known as the "Mana religion", and it is still practiced in Altena today.

**THE GIFT OF MANA**

Somewhere in the shadowy origins of Pedan, lie the beginnings of the giving of the Gift of Mana, a part of the Goddess's power, to individuals; this gift became known colloquially as the "class change". How these may have first occurred, or the result, is not known. But it became known that the powers of the Goddess allowed a person to make a choice between Dark and Light, twice; the first set the path, the second refined the choice.

The labels "Dark" and "Light" reflected a common, and current, prejudice, for dark over light. In fact, more accurate terms might be Chaos and Order. Those who chose the Dark path were not evil, but rather more suited to handle the unknown. In both the ways of Dark and Light, the result of Good or Evil was of the individual.

The Gift of Mana is currently offered to the most accomplished individuals of a nation. The Dark vs. Light distinction lives on, but, though tailored to the individual, the training of the different societies has allowed the candidate to more easily accept certain skills and powers. Thus, each society gives names to the gifts their finest will receive, representing the ultimate in desirable skills. For example, a Navarrese will always retain speed, stealth, and connection to nature, whereas an Altenan will always know the structure and source of magic; but it is in the experience of receiving the Gift that it will be decided how such skills will be focused and utilized. Accepting her Gift is both a personal privilege, to receive her strength; and a responsibility for the elite of all nations, to honor Her.

**ANCIENT CITY OF LIGHT**

Some eventually became disillusioned with the powers of Pedan, arguing that it was the Goddess herself who was the source of Mana, and it was to Her, and Her only, that worship was owed.

This group traveled to the main continent, wandering through the forests to arrive at Lake Astoria, at the base of the Rolante Mountains. There they encountered the "Tribe of Light", a largely egalitarian society where only women acted as priests. The Pedan group lived with them and eventually founded a Holy City, now known only as the Ancient City of Light, at the peak of a mountain overlooking the lake, the site of the Mana Stone of Light. This city grew to be the source of the religion now known as the "Goddess Religion", and in its time, was a beacon for many peoples of the world, and its outposts extending as far north as the large island north of present-day Rolante. Even Pedan was forced to acknowledge its importance and for decades leading into centuries, the two cities formed the core of the world's civilization.

The balance changed, however, roughly a thousand years ago, when the Ancient City of Light was destroyed by demonic forces, appearing out of nowhere as if summoned. Rumor has it that the forces of the underworld had taken control of the Holy Prince, who sold the purity of the kingdom for the power of the underworld. Perhaps it was a failing of the Ancient City that Light was assumed to be superior to darkness, and when the darkness came, they had no understanding of it and no idea of how to fight back; the Underworld is not pure Darkness, but has some similarity to that element.

Despite the philosophical conflicts of the two cities, Pedan recognized the threat and sent a contingent of its most accomplished wizards to the Ancient City. But when they arrived, there was nothing but ashes. The Mana Stone protected by the City seemed to be unharmed. Several Pedanen remained at the ruins, believing this to be the work of the Goddess herself, and ultimately blended in with the mountain tribes. Current Mana theory suggests that it was not in fact the intervention of the Goddess, but rather the fact that the Underworld was not yet strong enough to pursue this goal.

With the Ancient City of Light destroyed, Pedan comprised the only remaining center of civilization. Lacking the balance of its opposing city, conflict began to wrack it from within, and fanaticism appeared. Cults preaching the death of the Goddess abounded, and the magic for which Pedan was known began to be abused by the populace.

**THE MODERN KINGDOMS**

Desperately, a small group of powerful mages left the disaster that Pedan had become to found their own community, in A.G. (Ancient Goddess) year 927. Perhaps it was their desire to create a society as different as possible from Pedan that compelled them to travel from the tropical jungle to the northern icefields of Altena. In those days, the Sub-Zero Snowfield exhibited seasonal fluctuations and summer warmth, forming a welcoming countryside. There, the Magic Kingdom was formed, following the religion of their ancestors and pursuing magic wholeheartedly, removed for centuries away from the conflicts tearing apart Pedan.

Following the period of Altenan isolation, a zealot rose up in Pedan, preaching that the creatures known as Dragons would save the city. This man's name became lost to history, and he is now known only as the Dragon Emperor. The dragons he summoned, however, were not the pure beasts believed to be creatures of the Goddess herself, but reptiles corrupted by foul Mana. Not only was the Dragon Emperor ultimately driven out of Pedan, but rumors spread that Mana itself was weakening. As Altena thrived, Pedan struggled to hold on despite its restless citizenry.

After decades of struggle by its rulers, Pedan decided to divert its energies into expanding territory as its resources suffered and famine took hold. The eyes of its leaders turned to the fertile plains called Forcena. The plains being quite hospitable, they were in fact quite populous, and bloody warfare resulted. Both spear and sword were used by tribes fighting the Pedan wizards, but as spears were burnt to ashes, the female spear-wielder's graceful techniques no defense against magic, the vicious and effective brutality of the men's swords triumphed. The sword became the dominant weapon, and the men became more skilled in their craft, covering themselves with plates of the same metal used to create their weapons. Some members of the defenders stepped back from the bloodshed to care for the fallen, not only of their own people but of those of the enemies. These became known as Knights.

As Pedan was beaten back, in A.G. 742 the grasslands of Forcena declared itself an independent nation. Some of the captive Pedan mages chose to become citizens of Forcena, bringing their magic to combine with the Forcenan's martial techniques. More importantly, they brought with them a respect for learning that was recognized and quickly became a respected part of the culture, causing Forcena to grow as a learning center as well as military. The hospitable terrain and central location enabled Forcena to flourish as other nations formed.

As Forcena developed its strength, the tribes from the hills above Lake Astoria appealed to it for protection. The bulk of the survivors of the Ancient City of Light remained in the mountains; but with the strength of the Forcenan Knights, within a few decades a group was able to return to the lowlands, and founded Wendel, which became the new seat of the Goddess religion. Unlike the Ancient City, Wendel was more understanding of the balance between dark and light, and devoted study to both sides. Pedan, though having somewhat stabilized this time, did not have tremendous contact with Wendel, adopting an increasingly isolationist policy. In A.G. 613 the new Temple to the Goddess, at the shores of Lake Astoria, was consecrated. Over the next decades, dozens of tiny villages sprouted in the fertile lake area.

Meanwhile, other descendants of the Ancient City of Light remained in the mountains, clinging to the same Goddess religion but not yet joining Wendel. After the Forcenan conflicts, some of its female spear-warriors made their way to the mountains to join these people. There, they met the female descendants of the ancient priesthood, and taught them Forcenan spear techniques to overcome the disadvantages of lesser female strength. The priestesses soon trained their physical strength to the maximum, then enhancing their power through the use of increasingly sophisticated spear techniques. For their part, the priestesses had learned a smattering of magic from the handful of Pedanen who had mixed with them so long before. They began to preach of a Warrior Goddess, who granted them the power to become a new nation, and after prayer to the Goddess and the Elemental Spirits, developed a never-before-seen type of magic intended to strengthen allies and weaken enemies.

Thus armed, the mountain tribes were able to flourish, and they expanded eastward and upwards into the highest mountains, windy but still warm because of their location close to the tropics. At some point the Mana Stone of Wind was discovered in these mountains, and it was decided to build the new kingdom on the nearest possible outcrop, almost to the top of the highest peak. The first stone of the kingdom of Rolante was laid in A.G. 573. The main castle took forty years to finish, and the higher structures, known as the Tower, developed over centuries following. The warrior-priestesses preached that it was a woman's duty, as the manifestation of the Goddess, to protect the kingdom, while the men provided the brute strength needed to defend. These female warriors became known as "Amazons", an ancient name for the Goddess; confused Forcenans somehow turned this into the more feminine "Amazoness". Both variations are now in use interchangeably.

Rolante's strong religion led them to form a particular bond with the Elemental Spirit of Wind, Jinn. From Jinn, they learned ways to control the wind to defend their castle; in combination with the strategic location, this made the Rolantic castle impenetrable.

For the next three centuries, a period of stagnation resulted. Ravaged Pedan became increasingly isolated. It is believed that in this time, the old wizards began to use Mana itself to hide the city from the outside world. This protected it, at the same time spelling its demise. Meanwhile, the new kingdoms flourished.

This all changed with the rise of Navarre. Navarre, to this day, cannot truly be called a kingdom. Nor does it have a beginning. Unlike Altena, founded by immigrants, the people of Navarre seem to have been there for as long as recorded history. Occasionally foreigners chose to enter this desert society, and today the Navarrese have a little blood of every nation in them.

Navarre, centuries ago, was as tropical and therefore hospitable as Pedan, and inhabitants maintained a close contact with nature. Though the Goddess was not worshipped until much later, there seems to have been some elemental cults focused on Dryad, Salamando, and even Luna. Even decentralized, the population grew steadily.

For unknown reasons, the forest of Navarre began to recede at about the same time that snow crept into Altena. The scattered but now-substantial population was forced to combine groups for more efficient survival. At some point, around A.G. 290, the Navarrese began to create in the cliffs a structure known alternately as the Sand Palace or the Sand Fortress. Over the years, as more and more of the desert people sought refuge from the encroaching desert in the Sand Palace, the structure was expanded to become an enormous and impregnable entity. Still, Navarre followed tribal customs of its past, never installing a monarch. Often, the leader was the progeny of the prior ruler, but even so, the election was democratic. The same family ruled Navarre for over 150 years, until the heir herself decided to splinter away, paving the way for a series of new leaders.

It was after the year 200 A.G. that climate began to change even more severely, and rumors spread that Mana itself was changing, even as intellectuals discarded the concept. The northern and southern kingdoms - Altena and Navarre - suffered the most. Altena quickly adapted its magic skills to warm the inhabited regions. Navarre, however, was still habitable despite the warming trend, but its resources rapidly dried up.

Even as it still respected its nature-worship roots, the people turned to thievery for survival, and began to develop it as an art. Oddly, Navarre has its own code of ethics about who can be stolen from, and where; within the kingdom, even lying is practically a capital offense. After years of survival based on robbing Wendel and Rolante, the Navarrese became more sophisticated and began to exploit more licit methods of obtaining money, ultimately becoming a major financial hub without ever losing their thieving past completely. Though still officially a "guild", not a kingdom, Navarre rapidly became rich enough, through participation in the world economy, to be considered a major power. Due to secrecy, even within Navarre itself, its wealth is unquantifiable; therefore, it is unknown whether or not it is wealthier than Altena.

A new power has only recently emerged, as the Beastmen of the Moonlight Forest have emerged under a new leader to declare themselves the Beast Kingdom, known formally as Ferolia. Previously, the beastmen were considered to be little more than animals, though known to become fully human during daylight hours. The forest in which they lived was kept in an endless night; this is believed to be the work of Luna, the moon spirit. Their groups were highly fragmented, but appear now to be achieving unprecedented cohesion. As Ferolia is new to the world stage, its religion and belief system are not yet fully understood, and will have to be explored in the next few years.


End file.
